Terms and Acronyms

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)—A link-state IGP that makes routing decisions based on the shortest-path-first (SPF) algorithm (also referred to as the Dijkstra algorithm).
OSPFv3—The IPv6-enabled version of the OSPF protocol.
link-state advertisement (LSA)—A multi-tiered message format for OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 that carries information about the OSPF network to OSPF-enabled routers. The collection of LSAs forms the link-state database used by the routers to select optimum paths. Different LSA levels limit the scope of OSPF protocol message delivery to links, areas, or autonomous systems (ASs).