EIGRP and OSPF are two common routing protocols specifying how routers or data switches communicate with each other. Though they both base on routing algorithms to find the best path for data transmission, EIGRP and OSPF are often applied in different situations for varied performance on speed, delay, etc. Here we will introduce what are EIGRP and OSPF in details, and discuss EIGRP vs OSPF: what’s the difference?
What Is EIGRP Protocol?
EIGRP is short for Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol. It’s a Cisco proprietary routing protocol which evolves from IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). Many network engineers believe that EIGRP is the best choice for a routing protocol on private networks because it offers the best balance between speed, scalability and ease of management.
What Is OSPF Protocol?
OSPF, known as Open Shortest Path First, is an open standard protocol. It is virtually available on any modern enterprise network hardware (Gigabit Ethernet switch, router etc.). Though some engineers think OSPF is a bit more complicated to set up and manage than EIGRP, it’s relatively easy to run once you get the hang of things such as autonomous system routing domains. OSPF can be applied to any network unless it is very small, old or primarily Cisco.
PPP explained
PPP is a WAN protocol that works at layer 2 by encapsulating frames for transmission over a variety of physical links such as serial cables, cell phones, fiber optic cable among others. it offers many more features as compared to HDLC and it is an open standard. Some of the features that it offers which are not available in HDLC include:
- Link quality management which is a way to monitor the quality of a link in PPP. When PPP detects too many errors on a link, the link is shut down.
- Authentication using PAP and/or CHAP
PPP operation is made using three parameters:
- Encapsulation of frames using HDLC protocol
- LCP (Link Control Protocol) for establishment, configuration and testing of the link
- NCP (Network Control Protocols) to negotiate the different layer 3 protocols.
