OSPF AND IS-IS PROTOCOLS

Comparison and Contrast between OSPF and IS-IS Protocols

Abstract

This report is a proposal that presents an idea offering network consultancy services for small business organizations. It highlights the way the solution would work in the environment of small business organizations, the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the proposed idea and the feasibility of the proposed idea in the target market amongst the target population. the report further presents the environmental analysis of this implementation including the distinctive political, economical, social, technological, and ethical (PESTEL) analysis of the same. In addition to this, the Porter's five forces model, comprising; competitive intensity, threat of substitutes, buyer power, supplier power, and barriers to entry in the target market, has been discussed projecting on the feasibility of the implementation of the solutions on OSPF and IS-IS routing protocols in the small business organizations. The report ends with the risks associated with the implementation of the proposed solutions on OSPF and IS-IS routing protocols in small business organizations.Comparison and Contrast between OSPF and IS-IS Protocols

Chosen Idea

Amongst the various ideas under discussion, the idea that has been chosen for the preparation of the project and this project report is “Network Consultancy Services on OSPF and IS-IS Routing Protocols for Small Business Organizations”. The proposed idea is to recommend and sale out the scale of network implementation regarding OSPF and IS-IS protocols to the small businesses. This would be carried out by presenting a comparison amid the two mentioned routing protocols, in respect of their particular characteristics, the way routing is performed in either of the two, their feasibility to the environment of a particular organization, and the ease in their implementation. Open Shortest Path Routing or OSPF and Intermediate System to Intermediate System or IS-IS are two link state protocols. Both these protocols are identical in terms of operation however there are some aspects in which they differ.

Development of the idea

The small business organizations need a highly secure and available, intelligent network infrastructure for supporting the enterprise solutions like wireless, video, voice, and mission critical data applications. The employment of the hierarchical design principles imparts the basis for the implementation of enterprise networks which fulfil such requisites. The hierarchical design employs an approach of building block influencing a high-speed routed core network layer, to which there are a number of distinct distribution blocks attached. The distribution blocks are made up of two layers of switches; the wiring closet access switches and the actual distribution nodes which serve as aggregators (Katz, 2000, pp. 24-29). The hierarchical design separates out the roles of the network into these distinct building blocks for providing fault isolation, scalability, flexibility, and availability. The distribution block is responsible for providing route aggregation, access control and policy enforcement, and the segregation amid Layer 2 subnet (VLAN) and the remaining Layer 3 routed network. The core layers of the network are responsible for providing high capacity transport amid the connected distribution building blocks. The following figure illustrates an example of a hierarchical ...