Basic inter-domain protocol redistribution

Route redistribution allows border routers to distribute routes between adjacent routing domains. Thus, the North router can redistribute routes from the northern RIP domain to the OSPF domain and from the OSPF domain to the northern RIP domain. Similarly, the South router can redistribute routes from the southern RIP domain to the OSPF domain and from the OSPF domain to the southern RIP domain. And if both the North and South routers have redistribution enabled in both directions at the same time, the routes that are redistributed from the RIP domains to the OSPF domain will be further distributed to the opposite RIP domain, and routers and hosts in all domains will be able to communicate with each other. (Some subtle complications are explained below.)

For example, in the North and South routers you might add a redistribute rip command to the router ospf context and a redistribute ospf command to the router rip context, like this:

  . 
  . 
 router ospf 
area backbone 
redistribute rip 
exit 
 router rip 
redistribute connected 
redistribute ospf 
exit 
 . 
 . 

This causes extensive redistribution of routes within all three routing domains, adding a large number of routes to the route tables of all the routers. For example, the route table in the East router adds routes to subnets in both RIP domains, and looks like this:

 East(config)# show ip route 
 
                         IP Route Entries 

  Destination     Gateway         VLAN Type      Sub-Type   Metric     Dist. 
  --------------- --------------- ---- --------- ---------- ---------- ----- 
  10.1.11.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.12.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.13.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.14.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.22.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.23.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.3.31.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  10.3.31.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  10.3.32.0/24    VLAN32          32   connected            1          0 
  10.3.33.0/24    VLAN33          33   connected            1          0 
  10.3.34.0/24    VLAN34          34   connected            1          0 
  10.3.37.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  127.0.0.0/8     reject               static               0          0 
  127.0.0.1/32    lo0                  connected            1          0 

But this route table does not include all the possible routes in all domains: routes to subnets 10.1.15.x, 10.1.16.x, 10.2.21.x, and 10.2.29.x (VLANs 15, 16, 21, and 29) are missing. Host computer M cannot ping host X because there is no route to it, though it can ping through the "invisible" South router to host Y or host Z.

The problem is that those missing subnets are directly connected to the North and South border routers, and directly connected routes must be explicitly redistributed with a redistribute connected command even though they are RIP routes and RIP routes were redistributed. So by adding redistribute connected commands to the router ospf contexts of the North and South routers, like this:

 . 
 . 
 router ospf 
   area backbone 
   redistribute connected 
   redistribute rip 
   exit 
 . 
 . 

All existing routes are redistributed and the route table for the East router is now complete:

 East(config)# show ip route 
 
                            IP Route Entries 

  Destination     Gateway         VLAN Type      Sub-Type   Metric     Dist. 
  --------------- --------------- ---- --------- ---------- ---------- ----- 
  10.1.11.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.12.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.13.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.14.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.15.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.1.16.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.21.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.22.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.23.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.2.29.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      External2  10         110 
  10.3.31.0/24    10.3.32.1       32   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  10.3.31.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  10.3.32.0/24    VLAN32          32   connected            1          0 
  10.3.33.0/24    VLAN33          33   connected            1          0 
  10.3.34.0/24    VLAN34          34   connected            1          0 
  10.3.37.0/24    10.3.33.2       33   ospf      IntraArea  2          110 
  127.0.0.0/8     reject               static               0          0 
  127.0.0.1/32    lo0                  connected            1          0 

Host L can now ping host X and, indeed, any other host in any of the three routing domains.