OSPF will perform an election for a designated router (DR) and backup designated router (BDR) on every multi-access network segment. Multi-access segments are defined as segments where more than two hosts can reach each other directly, such as a shared Ethernet segment (broadcast multi-access) or Frame Relay (non-broadcast multi-access, or NBMA).

DR and BDR elections do not occur on point-to-point or point-to-multipoint segments. Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint segments are not considered multiaccess segments. OSPF routers on these network types will establish an adjacency without a DR/BDR election.