Consider the previous example, this time split into OSPF areas. An OSPF area configuration is pictured in Figure 6. Router RT4's routing table will be described for this area configuration. Router RT4 has a connection to Area 1 and a backbone connection. This causes Router RT4 to view the AS as the concatenation of the two graphs shown in Figures 7 and 8. The resulting routing table is displayed in Table 13.
Again, Routers RT5 and RT7 are AS boundary routers. Routers RT3, RT4, RT7, RT10 and RT11 are area border routers. Note that there are two routing table entries (in this case having identical paths) for Router RT7, in its dual capacities as an area border router and an AS boundary router. Note also that there are two routing entries for the area border router RT3, since it has two areas in common with RT4 (Area 1 and the backbone).
Backbone paths have been calculated to all area border routers (BR). These are used when determining the inter-area routes. Note that all of the inter-area routes are associated with the backbone; this is always the case when the calculating router is itself an area border router. Routing information is condensed at area boundaries. In this example, we assume that Area 3 has been defined so that networks N9-N11 and the host route to H1 are all condensed to a single route when advertised into the backbone (by Router RT11). Note that the cost of this route is the minimum of the set of costs to its individual components.
Type Dest Area Path Type Cost Next Adv.
Hop(s) Router(s)
____________________________________________________________
N N1 0 intra-area 10 RT3 *
N N2 0 intra-area 10 RT3 *
N N3 0 intra-area 7 RT3 *
N N4 0 intra-area 8 RT3 *
N Ib 0 intra-area 7 * *
N Ia 0 intra-area 12 RT10 *
N N6 0 intra-area 8 RT10 *
N N7 0 intra-area 12 RT10 *
N N8 0 intra-area 10 RT10 *
N N9 0 intra-area 11 RT10 *
N N10 0 intra-area 13 RT10 *
N N11 0 intra-area 14 RT10 *
N H1 0 intra-area 21 RT10 *
ASBR RT5 0 intra-area 6 RT5 *
ASBR RT7 0 intra-area 8 RT10 *
____________________________________________________________
N N12 * type 1 ext. 10 RT10 RT7
N N13 * type 1 ext. 14 RT5 RT5
N N14 * type 1 ext. 14 RT5 RT5
N N15 * type 1 ext. 17 RT10 RT7
Table 12: The routing table for Router RT6
(no configured areas).
There is a virtual link configured between Routers RT10 and RT11. Without this configured virtual link, RT11 would be unable to advertise a route for networks N9-N11 and Host H1 into the backbone, and there would not be an entry for these networks in Router RT4's routing table.
In this example there are two equal-cost paths to Network N12. However, they both use the same next hop (Router RT5).
Router RT4's routing table would improve (i.e., some of the paths in the routing table would become shorter) if an additional virtual link were configured between Router RT4 and Router RT3. The new virtual link would itself be associated with the first entry for area border router RT3 in Table 13 (an intra-area path through Area 1). This would yield a cost of 1 for the virtual link. The routing table entries changes that would be caused by the addition of this virtual link are shown in Table 14.
Type Dest Area Path Type Cost Next Adv.
Hops(s) Router(s)
__________________________________________________________________
N N1 1 intra-area 4 RT1 *
N N2 1 intra-area 4 RT2 *
N N3 1 intra-area 1 * *
N N4 1 intra-area 3 RT3 *
BR RT3 1 intra-area 1 * *
__________________________________________________________________
N Ib 0 intra-area 22 RT5 *
N Ia 0 intra-area 27 RT5 *
BR RT3 0 intra-area 21 RT5 *
BR RT7 0 intra-area 14 RT5 *
BR RT10 0 intra-area 22 RT5 *
BR RT11 0 intra-area 25 RT5 *
ASBR RT5 0 intra-area 8 * *
ASBR RT7 0 intra-area 14 RT5 *
__________________________________________________________________
N N6 0 inter-area 15 RT5 RT7
N N7 0 inter-area 19 RT5 RT7
N N8 0 inter-area 18 RT5 RT7
N N9-N11,H1 0 inter-area 26 RT5 RT11
__________________________________________________________________
N N12 * type 1 ext. 16 RT5 RT5,RT7
N N13 * type 1 ext. 16 RT5 RT5
N N14 * type 1 ext. 16 RT5 RT5
N N15 * type 1 ext. 23 RT5 RT7
Table 13: Router RT4's routing table
in the presence of areas.