How does OSPF cost tuning influence preferred forwarding paths?

Example Concept: OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) uses a cost metric to determine the best path to a destination. The cost is typically based on the bandwidth of the link, with lower costs preferred. By tuning the OSPF cost on interfaces, network engineers can influence the path selection process, directing traffic over higher bandwidth links or alternative routes to balance load, improve performance, or provide redundancy. This is achieved by configuring the 'ip ospf cost' command on routers running Cisco IOS, for example, to manually set the desired cost value on specific interfaces.