In a number of lessons, I covered the OSPF network types. This lesson is the final one and will cover the OSPF Point-to-Point Network Type. I will be using a frame-relay point-to-point topology to demonstrate it, here it is:

Here’s what you need to know about OSPF point-to-point:
- Automatic neighbor discovery so no need to configure OSPF neighbors yourself.
- No DR/BDR election since OSPF sees the network as a collection of point-to-point links.
- Normally uses for point-to-point sub-interfaces with an IP subnet per link.
- Can also be used with multiple PVCs using only one subnet.
Let me show you the configuration of the Hub router:
Hub(config)#interface serial 0/0
Hub(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay
Hub(config-if)#exit
Hub(config)#interface serial 0/0.102 point-to-point
Hub(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.12.1 255.255.255.0
Hub(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci 102
Hub(config-subif)#exit
Hub(config)#interface serial 0/0.103 point-to-point
Hub(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.13.1 255.255.255.0
Hub(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci 103
I am using two sub-interfaces and assigning the correct DLCI number to each sub-interface. Now let’s configure the spoke routers:
Spoke1(config)#interface serial 0/0
Spoke1(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay
Spoke1(config-if)#interface serial 0/0.201 point-to-point
Spoke1(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.12.2 255.255.255.0
Spoke1(config-if)#frame-relay interface-dlci 201
Spoke2(config)#interface serial 0/0
Spoke2(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay
Spoke2(config-if)#interface serial 0/0.301 point-to-point
Spoke2(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.13.3 255.255.255.0
Spoke2(config-if)#frame-relay interface-dlci 301
Above you see a sub-interface for each spoke router with the correct DLCI number.
Keep in mind that the physical interface for frame-relay is always point-to-multipoint. If the technical requirements state that you need to use a point-to-point interface then you should create a sub-interface.
Let’s enable OSPF for all routers:
Hub(config)#router ospf 1
Hub(config-router)#network 192.168.12.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Hub(config-router)#network 192.168.13.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Spoke1(config)#router ospf 1
Spoke1(config-router)#network 192.168.12.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Spoke2(config)#router ospf 1
Spoke2(config-router)#network 192.168.13.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Configure OSPF for all subnets, nothing special here…let’s see if we have any OSPF neighbors:
Hub#show ip ospf neighbor
Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface
192.168.13.3 0 FULL/ - 00:00:34 192.168.13.3 Serial0/0.103
192.168.12.2 0 FULL/ - 00:00:36 192.168.12.2 Serial0/0.102
As you can see we have OSPF neighbors…mission accomplished!
Unit 1: Introduction to OSPF
- Introduction to OSPF
- Basic OSPF Configuration
- OSPF Multi Area Configuration
- OSPF Reference Bandwidth
- OSPF Plain Text Authentication
- OSPF MD5 Authentication
- OSPF SHA-HMAC Authentication
- OSPF TTL Security Check
- OSPF Default Route
Unit 2: OSPF Neighbor Adjacency
- OSPF LSA Types
- OSPF LSAs and LSDB Flooding
- OSPF Hello and Dead Interval
- OSPF Router ID
- OSPF Packets and Neighbor Discovery
- OSPF DR/BDR Election
- OSPF Passive Interface
- Troubleshooting OSPF Neighbor Adjacency
Unit 3: OSPF Network Types
- OSPF Non-Broadcast Network Type
- OSPF Broadcast Network Type
- OSPF Point-to-Multipoint Network Type
- OSPF Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast Network Type
- OSPF Point-to-Point Network Type
- OSPF Next Hop with Network Types
Unit 4: OSPF Stub Areas
- Introduction to OSPF Stub Areas
- How to configure OSPF Stub Area
- How to configure OSPF Totally Stub
- How to configure OSPF NSSA (Not So Stubby) Area
- How to configure OSPF Totally NSSA (Not So Stubby) Area
- OSPF NSSA P-bit explained
Unit 5: Advanced OSPF Topics
- OSPF Summarization
- OSPF Distribute-List Filtering
- OSPF LSA Type 3 Filtering
- OSPF LSA Type 5 Filtering
- OSPF Virtual Link
- OSPF Virtual Link Authentication
- OSPF Path Selection Explained
- How to read the OSPF Database
- OSPFv3 for IPv4
- Troubleshooting OSPF Route Advertisement
- OSPF SPF Scheduling and Throttling
- OSPF LSA Throttling
- OSPF Incremental SPF
- OSPF Prefix Suppression
- OSPF Stub Router
- OSPF Graceful Shutdown
- OSPF Graceful Restart
- OSPF Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) Fast Reroute (FRR)
- OSPF Remote Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) Fast Reroute (FRR)