IS-IS PDUs

IS-IS PDUs are encapsulated into link layer frames. An IS-IS PDU has two parts, the headers and the variable length fields. The headers comprise the PDU common header and the PDU specific header. All PDUs have the same PDU common header. The specific headers vary by PDU type.

IS-to-IS hello (IIH) PDUs are used by routers to establish and maintain neighbor relationships. On broadcast networks, Level-1 routers use Level-1 LAN IIHs, and Level-2 routers use Level-2 LAN IIHs. The P2P IIHs are used on point-to-point networks.

The LSPs carry link state information. LSPs include Level-1 LSPs and Level-2 LSPs. The Level-2 LSPs are sent by the Level-2 routers, and the Level-1 LSPs are sent by the Level-1 routers. The Level-1-2 router can send both types of LSPs.

A sequence number PDU (SNP) describes the complete or partial LSPs for LSDB synchronization.

SNPs include CSNP and PSNP, which are further divided into Level-1 CSNP, Level-2 CSNP, Level-1 PSNP, and Level-2 PSNP.

A CSNP describes the summary of all LSPs for LSDB synchronization between neighboring routers. On broadcast networks, CSNPs are sent by the DIS periodically (every 10 seconds by default). On point-to-point networks, CSNPs are sent only during the first adjacency establishment.

A PSNP only contains the sequence numbers of one or multiple latest received LSPs. It can acknowledge multiple LSPs at one time. When LSDBs are not synchronized, a PSNP is used to request missing LSPs from a neighbor.

The variable fields of PDU comprise multiple Code-Length-Value (CLV) triplets.

Table 5 shows that different PDUs contain different CLVs. Codes 1 through 10 are defined in ISO 10589 (code 3 and 5 are not shown in the table), and others are defined in RFC 1195.