Routing protocol configuration

Overview

A routing protocol specifies how routers communicate with each other, dynamically disseminating information that enables them to select routes between NEs, the choice of the route being done by routing algorithms. The NFM-P supports a variety of standard routing protocols.

You can use the XML API to enable and configure network protocol communications and connections on NEs.

Supported routing protocols and their packages include:

BGP (bgp)
RIP (rip)
OSPF (ospf)
LDP (ldp)
IS-IS (isis)
L2TP (l2tp)
RSVP (rsvp)

The XML API also supports the following multicast protocols:

PIM (pim)
IGMP (igmp)
MSDP (msdp)
MLD (mld)

BGP

BGP is an inter-AS routing protocol. An AS is a network or a group of devices logically organized and controlled by a common network administration. BGP enables devices to exchange network reachability information. AS paths are the routes to each destination. There are two types of BGP: IBGP and EBGP.

IBGP is used to communicate with peer devices in the same AS.
EBGP is used to communicate with peers in different ASs.

RIP

RIP is an IGP that uses a distance-vector algorithm to determine the best route to a destination, using hop count as the deciding factor. In order for the protocol to provide complete information about routing, every device in the domain must participate in the protocol. RIP, a UDP-based protocol, updates its neighbors, and the neighbors update their neighbors. RIP directly advertises reachability information to its neighbors by sending prefix, mask, and either hop count or cost metric data.

OSPF

OSPF is a hierarchical link state protocol. OSPF is an IGP used within large ASs. OSPF routers exchange the state, cost, and other relevant interface information with neighbors after the neighbors are discovered. The information exchange enables all participating routers to establish a network topology map. Each router applies the Dijkstra algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each destination in the network. The resulting OSPF forwarding table is submitted to the routing table manager to calculate the routing table.

LDP

LDP is used to distribute labels in non-traffic-engineered MPLS applications. Routers can establish LSPs across a network by mapping network-layer routing information directly to the data link layer switched paths. After LDP distributes the labels to the LSR, the LSR assigns the label to a FEC, and then informs all other LSRs in the path about the label and how the label will switch data accordingly.

IS-IS

IS-IS is a link-state IGP that uses the shortest path first algorithm to determine a route. Routing decisions are made using the link-state information. IS-IS entities include:

networks, which are autonomous system routing domains
intermediate systems (supported routers)
end systems, which are network devices that send and receive PDUs

End systems and intermediate system protocols allow NEs to identify each other. The IS-IS protocol sends link-state updates periodically through the network, so each NE can maintain current network topology information.

L2TP

L2PT is a session-layer protocol that extends the PPP model by allowing L2 and PPP endpoints to reside on different devices that are interconnected by a PSN. L2TP extends the PPP sessions between the CPE and PPP/L2TP termination point (LNS), via an intermediate LAC.

RSVP

RSVP is a network-control protocol in the IP suite that is used for communicating application QoS requirements to intermediate transit NEs in a network. RSVP uses a soft-state mechanism to maintain path and reservation states on each NE in the reservation path.

PIM

PIM is a multicast routing architecture that allows the addition of IP multicast routing on existing IP networks. PIM is unicast routing protocol independent and can be operated in the following ways:

sparse mode
dense mode

IGMP

The XML API uses the igmp package to configure the multicast IGMP routing type on IPv4 hosts and routers. IPv4 hosts and routers use IGMP to report their group memberships to neighboring multicast routers.

MSDP

MSDP is a protocol that enables multiple PIM-SM domains to communicate with each other using their own RPs. MSDP also enables multiple RPs in a single PIM-SM domain to establish MSDP mesh-groups and to synchronize information between anycast RPs about the active sources being served by each anycast RP peer.

MLD

MLD is an asymmetric protocol used by IPv6 routers to discover the presence of NEs that wish to receive multicast packets on their directly-attached links, and to discover which multicast addresses are of interest to those neighboring NEs.

Note: See “NE routing and forwarding” in the NSP NFM-P Classic Management User Guide for more information about routing protocols.

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