1They form a neighbor relation with other routers before sharing the routing information. They do not send out routing information to the entire network as in case of distance vector protocols. Information related to their neighbors are stored in a table.
2They only exchange connectivity related information or link states, unlike distance vector protocols that send out routing tables. This information is stored n a topology table to construct a full view of the network.
Based on links states received, each router calculates the best path to every destination in the network. Each protocol has its own algorithm to calculate the best path.
3Link state updates are sent out only when there is a change instead of periodically as in case of distance vector protocols.
4Link state protocols converge faster than distance vector protocols.Link State Protocols are a little more complex to configure, manage and troubleshoot compared to distance vector protocols. OSPF is an example of a link state protocol