Choosing a Common IGP for the IP Internet

Choosing a "Common IGP" for the IP Internet (The IESG's Recommendation to the IAB) Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Special Note This document was originally prepared as an Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) recommendation to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) in midsummer 1991, reaching the current version by the date shown above. Although the document is now somewhat dated (e.g., CIDR and RIP II are not mentioned), the IESG felt it was important to publish this along with the recent OSPF Applicability Statement [11] to help establish context and motivation. Abstract This memo presents motivation, rationale and other surrounding background information leading to the IESG's recommendation to the IAB for a single "common IGP" for the IP portions of the Internet. In this memo, the term "common IGP" is defined, the need for a common IGP is explained, the relation of this issue to other ongoing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) routing protocol development is provided, and the relation of this issue to the goal for multi-protocol integration in the Internet is explored. Finally, a specific IGP is recommended as the "common IGP" for IP portions of the Internet-the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol. The goal of this recommendation is for all vendors of Internet IP routers to make OSPF available as one of the IGP's provided with their routers. IESG [Page 1]