Routing Protocol Overview

Overview

Routing is the basic element of data communication networks. It is the process of selecting paths on a network along which packets are sent from a source to a destination.

Static Routes and Dynamic Routes

FW support static routes and dynamic routes including Routing Information Protocol (RIP) routes, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routes, Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) routes, and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes.

Default Routes

Default routes are special routes. Generally, administrators can manually configure default static routes. Default routes can also be generated through dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF and IS-IS.

Routing Table and FIB Table

The routing table is used to select routes, and the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) is used to guide packet forwarding. Each router maintains one routing table and one FIB table at least.

Routing Protocol Preference

This section describes the preferences of all the routing protocols.

Route Import

Different routing protocols can import routes from each other.

Route Metric

A route metric specifies the cost of a route to a specified destination address.

Load Balancing

When multiple routes have the same routing protocol preference and metric, these routes are called equal-cost routes, among which load balancing can be implemented.

Priority-based Route Convergence

Priority-based route convergence, which provides faster convergence of routes for key services, is an important technology to improve network reliability.