|  | 11.8 | Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) and Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)
| 11.8.5 | OSPF
OSPF means "open shortest path first". A better description, however, might be "determination of optimum path", because this Interior Gateway Protocol actually uses several criteria to determine the best route to a destination. These criteria include cost metrics, which factor in such things as route speed, traffic, reliability, and security.