EIGRP Vs OSPF- Protocol Showdown

EIGRP Vs OSPF is the hot concern for network admins when they are confused which protocol they should use in their enterprise. If you certainly look at the fact both these protocols are very good, both have high convergence rate, use up less bandwidth and are free from loops. Then what are the real points that make these two so distinguishable from each other, those points are my concern in this session. Also for this topic, you need to know what is EIGRP AND OSPF.  



In this EIGRP Vs OSPF topic, I will consider all the main advantages and disadvantages of these two protocols and pit them against each other to see which one fairs better. So let's get started.

• Starting with my first point, EIGRP is a Cisco Proprietary so it can only be used in Cisco routers, but what if there are multiple vendor routers, in that case, we will have no choice but to use OSPF which is an open standard protocol and can be used by other vendors as well. 

• Now talking about implementation, Implementing OSPF is a little bit more challenging as compared to EIGRP,  as OSPF involves areas for dividing the network, the network administrator should have a solid understanding of data communication and network in order to make OSPF run well. But since OSPF is getting more and more popular this could not be considered a big problem anymore.

• OSPF is specially designed for larger networks, as it has unlimited hop count, unlike Eigrp which has hop count limit of max 255(100 by Default). Hop count here means to how many routers it can send routing information. This one is a severe drawback for EIGRP protocol and that is why it can not be implemented in larger networks where thousands of routers are concerned. 

• Eigrp uses Dual(Diffusing Update Algorithm) Algorithm, due to this, it also maintains a Feasible Successor(backup) route along with Successor one in its topological database, so whenever a route is down it will automatically use the feasible successor as a route to reach the destination so no need to rerun the algorithm again and hence saving CPU consumption. Whereas in OSPF if the route goes down it has to rerun the SPF algorithm again and recalculate the route and hence here CPU consumption is considerably more. 

• OSPF does not support auto-summary, you will have to manually summerise each network, whereas Eigrp supports auto-summarization by default, you can disable auto-summarization to enable manual summarization.

• Since Eigrp is Advance Distance vector Protocol, it uses Routing-by-Rumour approach ie there is no authenticity to the routing information from the neighbor router about the network. Whereas in OSPF, which is a link state protocol, checks the routing information contained in the topological table in form the LSA's(Link state Advertisement). 

• Eigrp has an Administrative distance of 90(Internal Eigrp) and 170(External Eigrp) whereas OSPF has an AD of 110.

• Eigrp Supports IP multiple protocols like IP, IPx and AppleTalk, whereas OSPF only supports IP.

• Eigrp Supports both Equal and Unequal cost Load balancing whereas OSPF only supports Equal cost load balancing.

EIGRP Vs OSPF:- Verdict

I think the network administrator should absolutely go with using OSPF protocol, as he won't have to worry that all the routers should be of Cisco. Also, OSPF is suitable for large enterprises where thousands of routers are involved. But if the company is of small-scale and all the routers are of Cisco then definitely using Eigrp will be more suitable, as Eigrp is less complex to implement and has more convergence rate then OSPF.

So I think choosing which protocol to use depends upon the situation or scenario you are facing. I am very sure that this Article of EIGRP VS OSPF will help the administrators to choose the protocol suitable for them

So I guess this is it in this article of EIGRP Vs OSPF. If you guys have some suggestions for this post, write it down in the comment section, also after reading this article don't forget to share and subscribe...As sharing is caring!!