OSPF Multi-Area Configuration

Hello Shahlar

It is true that a DR/BDR election won’t take place in a point-to-point network between OSPF routers. However, we must define what “point-to-point” means. OSPF will automatically detect a point-to-point network based on the underlying technology.

For example, a serial connection is considered point-to-point, because, by definition, serial connections can have only one device connected on the opposite end of the circuit. OSPF will interpret an OSPF peering over a serial circuit as a point-to-point network type by default.

However, Ethernet is a multi-access technology, so when OSPF sees this, even if the physical topology is indeed point-to-point, it considers the connection as multiaccess, thus a DR/BDR election takes place.

You can of course change this behavior by simply issuing the ip ospf network command within the OSPF router configuration mode. More about this command can be found here:

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz

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