Question

Difficulty: MediumOSPFv2 Neighbor Adjacencies and Router ID

A network administrator initializes OSPFv2 process 1 on a Cisco router named Branch-GW. The router does not have an explicit `router-id` command configured under `router ospf 1`. The operational status and IPv4 addresses of the router interfaces are listed below:

- Loopback1: 10.10.10.10/32 (Up / Up)
- Loopback2: 10.200.1.1/32 (Up / Up)
- Loopback3: 172.16.50.1/32 (Up / Up)
- GigabitEthernet0/0: 192.168.100.1/24 (Up / Up)
- GigabitEthernet0/1: 192.168.200.1/24 (Up / Up)

What IPv4 address will OSPFv2 elect as the router ID for Branch-GW?

Answer: 172.16.50.1

Answer

172.16.50.1
OSPFv2 elects the router ID using a strict three-tier precedence hierarchy: 1) Manually configured `router-id` command, 2) Highest IPv4 address among active (Up/Up) loopback interfaces, 3) Highest IPv4 address among active physical interfaces. Because no manual router ID is specified, OSPF evaluates the active loopback interfaces. Among Loopback1 (10.10.10.10), Loopback2 (10.200.1.1), and Loopback3 (172.16.50.1), Loopback3 has the highest IPv4 address (172.16.50.1). Active loopbacks take precedence over physical interfaces, so the higher physical interface addresses (192.168.100.1 and 192.168.200.1) are ignored.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Check for an explicitly configured router ID under the OSPF process.
No `router-id` command is configured.
A manually configured router ID has the highest priority in OSPF election logic.
2
Identify active (Up/Up) loopback interfaces on the router.
Three active loopback interfaces exist: Loopback1 (10.10.10.10), Loopback2 (10.200.1.1), and Loopback3 (172.16.50.1).
Active loopback interfaces take precedence over all physical interfaces regardless of IP address values.
3
Determine the highest IPv4 address among the active loopback interfaces.
172.16.50.1 is numerically greater than 10.200.1.1 and 10.10.10.10.
When multiple active loopbacks are present, OSPF selects the highest numeric IPv4 address as the router ID.

Key Concept

OSPFv2 Router ID Election Priority Logic
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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