Question 180
At fictional Beacon Data Exchange, during a carrier peering cutover, engineers report: After a core migration, route selection changes while neighbors remain Full because interface cost on the new links was not adjusted. Which networking principle most accurately explains the observed failure?
Explanation
Correct Answer
OSPF chooses lowest-cost paths computed from link-state topology; a Full adjacency alone does not guarantee the desired route preference. That is the specific distinction behind the observed outage. The targeted fix is to tune the intended OSPF interface costs and verify SPF-selected reachability for the affected destinations.
Incorrect Answers
BGP import policy governs received routes and export policy governs outbound advertisements; changing the wrong direction cannot enforce the intended boundary. Those conditions do not account for the specific OSPF interface metric selection problem reported by Beacon Data Exchange.
Although OSPF point-to-point topology needs this consideration, the failure at issue has a different cause. OSPF chooses lowest-cost paths computed from link-state topology; a Full adjacency alone does not guarantee the desired route preference.
This principle matters when troubleshooting OSPF area LSA propagation, but using it here mistakes a different failure mode for OSPF interface metric selection. The relevant distinction is: OSPF chooses lowest-cost paths computed from link-state topology; a Full adjacency alone does not guarantee the desired route preference.