CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) Anki Practice Test 2025 - Free Cisco Practice Questions and Study Guide

In an OSPF non-broadcast network type, routers do not dynamically discover neighbors. This network type is typically used in situations where broadcast capabilities are limited or nonexistent, such as with Frame Relay or X.25 connections.

In a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) environment, routers require manual configuration to identify their neighbors because they cannot rely on broadcast messages to discover them. This means that network administrators must explicitly configure each router to establish OSPF neighbor relationships, specifying the IP addresses of the neighboring routers to create the required adjacency.

In contrast, on broadcast networks, such as Ethernet, routers can automatically discover each other by using broadcast messages. Thus, the static neighbor configuration necessity in non-broadcast environments is key to understanding why dynamic discovery is not applicable in this context. This fundamentally shapes the way OSPF operates in different network types, highlighting the distinction between how neighbor relationships are established based on the capabilities of the underlying network medium.