(
Open
Shortest
Path
First) A routing protocol that determines the best path for routing IP traffic over a TCP/IP network based on distance between nodes and several quality parameters. OSPF is an interior gateway protocol (IGP), which is designed to work within an autonomous system. It is also a link state protocol that provides less router to router update traffic than the RIP protocol (distance vector protocol) that it was designed to replace. See
RIP and
routing protocol.