OSPF - control plane vs data plane loops

In OSPF when we talk about a loop we are most often talking about a routing loop. This is a loop that occurs in the data plane The result of such a loop is user traffic looping indefinitely within the network.

An OSPF control plane loop is one where OSPF messages are continuously sent and loop throughout the topology, resulting in a failure to reach a stable state. this results in a lack of OSPF convergence.