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N10-009 · Question #209

Which of the following does OSPF use to communicate routing updates?

The correct answer is C. Multicast. OSPF primarily uses multicast communication for discovering neighbors and distributing routing updates on multi-access networks.

Submitted by amina.ke· Mar 6, 2026Networking concepts

Question

Which of the following does OSPF use to communicate routing updates?

Options

  • AUnicast
  • BAnycast
  • CMulticast
  • DBroadcast

How the community answered

(41 responses)
  • A
    2% (1)
  • B
    5% (2)
  • C
    93% (38)

Why each option

OSPF primarily uses multicast communication for discovering neighbors and distributing routing updates on multi-access networks.

AUnicast

Unicast is a one-to-one communication method, and while OSPF might use it for certain database synchronizations, its primary method for discovery and updates on multi-access segments is not unicast.

BAnycast

Anycast is a one-to-nearest communication method, often used for service discovery, but it is not the mechanism OSPF uses for its routing updates.

CMulticastCorrect

OSPF utilizes specific multicast addresses (224.0.0.5 for all OSPF routers and 224.0.0.6 for all OSPF Designated Routers/Backup Designated Routers) to send Hello packets, Link State Advertisements (LSAs), and other routing updates to efficiently communicate with other OSPF routers on a segment.

DBroadcast

Broadcast sends packets to all devices on a local network segment, but OSPF uses more targeted multicast addresses for efficiency, especially on networks where not all devices need to process OSPF messages.

Concept tested: OSPF communication methods (multicast)

Source: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/iproute_ospf/configuration/xe-3s/iro-xe-3s-book/iro-cfg.html

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