Influencing BGP Route Selection

Routing Protocol Tools and Route Manipulation

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-1
Objectives
• Describe the use of BGP weights to influence the BGP route selection
process
• Describe how to configure per-neighbor weights
• Describe how to change BGP weights using RPLs or Route Maps
• Describe the order of operation in setting BGP weights
• Describe how the BGP local preference attribute influences BGP route
selection
• Describe how to change the local preference
• Describe how to monitor the local preference values
• Describe the function of AS path prepending and how you can use it to
facilitate proper return path selection
• Describe design considerations for implementing AS path prepending
• Describe how to configure AS path prepending

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-2
Objectives (Cont.)
• Describe how to monitor AS path prepending
• Describe how AS path prepending can impact AS path filtering
• Describe how MED can be used to facilitate proper return path selection
• Describe how to change the MED
• Describe how to monitor MED values
• Describe how BGP communities facilitate proper return path selection
• Describe how to configure BGP Communities
• Describe BGP named community lists
• Describe the use of sequenced entries in extended community lists
• Describe how to set attributes based on community values
• Describe how to monitor BGP community values
• Show examples of using BG communities

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-3
Influencing BGP Route Selection
Outbound Traffic
• BGP routing policy can be specified by using:
- Weight: provides local routing policy (within a router)
- Local preference: provides AS-wide routing policy
• BGP weights are specified per neighbor.
- Default weight
- AS path-based weight
- Complex criteria with RPLs or route maps

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-4
Configuring Per-Neighbor Weights
• All routes from the BGP neighbor get the specified weight.
• BGP routes with a higher weight are preferred.
router bgp SP1-AS
neighbor SP3-AS
Routes received from a primary BGP address-family ipv4 unicast
neighbor should be preferred over routes weight 150
received from a backup BGP neighbor. neighbor SP4-AS
address-family ipv4 unicast
weight 100
router bgp Customer-AS
neighbor Primary-SP weight 150
neighbor Backup-SP weight 100
SP1 SP3
Customer

SP2
SP4

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-5
Changing Weights with RPLs or Route Maps
• Weights can be set with RPLs (Cisco IOS XR) or route maps (Cisco IOS/IOS
XE) in complex scenarios.
• Routes can be matched on any combination of prefix lists, AS path filters, or
other BGP attributes.
route-policy from_SP3 route-policy from_SP4
set weight 150 set weight 100 router bgp SP1-AS
end-policy end-policy neighbor SP3-AS
address-family ipv4 unicast
route-map from_SP1 route-map from_SP2 route-policy from_SP3 in
set weight 150 set weight 100 neighbor SP4-AS
address-family ipv4 unicast
route-policy from_SP4 in
router bgp Customer-AS
neighbor Primary-SP route-map from_SP1 in
neighbor Backup-SP route-map from_SP2 in SP1 SP3

Customer

SP2 SP4

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-6
BGP Weight Attachment Points

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-7
BGP Local Preference
• You can use local preference to ensure AS-wide route selection policy.
• Any BGP router can set local preference when it is processing incoming
route updates, doing redistribution, or sending outgoing route updates.
• Local preference is used to select routes with equal weight.
• Local preference is stripped in outgoing EBGP updates, except in EBGP
updates with confederation peers.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-8
BGP Local Preference (Cont.)
• Local preference is the second highest attribute in the BGP route
selection sequence.
• Remember the BGP route selection rules:
- Highest weight preferred (local to router)
- Highest local preference preferred (global within AS)
- Other BGP route selection rules
• Weights configured on a router override local preference settings.
• To ensure consistent AS-wide route selection:
- Do not change local preference within the AS.
- Do not use BGP weights.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-9
Changing Local Preference
• A default local preference value is applied to all routes that do
not have local preference set (EBGP routes).
• The default value of local preference is 100, allowing you to
specify more desirable or less desirable routers.
Changes the default LP
router bgp SP1-AS
Changes per neighbor LP bgp default local-preference 150

route-policy from_SP3 router bgp SP1-AS

set local-preference 150 neighbor SP3-AS
end-policy address-family ipv4 unicast
route-policy from_SP3 in
router bgp Customer-AS
bgp default local-preference 150
SP1 SP3

Customer

SP4
SP2

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-10
Monitoring Local Preference
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1#show bgp
< text omitted >
Nondefault LP is
Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete
displayed.
Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 10.1.1.1/32 0.0.0.0 0 32768 i LP from the IBGP
*> 10.1.10.1/32 192.168.101.11 0 0 64501 i
peer is displayed.
*>i10.2.1.1/32 10.2.1.1 0 100 0 i
*>i10.2.10.1/32 10.2.1.1 0 100 0 64502 i
< text omitted >

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1#show bgp 10.1.10.1/32

< text omitted >
Paths: (1 available, best #1) LP is always
Advertised to peers (in unique update groups): displayed.
10.0.1.1
Path #1: Received by speaker 0
Advertised to peers (in unique update groups):
10.0.1.1
64501
192.168.101.11 from 192.168.101.11 (10.1.10.1)
Origin IGP, metric 0, localpref 100, valid, external, best, group-best
Received Path ID 0, Local Path ID 1, version 9

Customer SP1

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-11
Return Path Selection in a Multihomed AS
• Requirement: The return traffic to the customer must arrive over the
highest-speed access link.
• Result: The return traffic flows over the path with the shortest AS path
length.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-12
Proper Return Path Selection
Q: How do you select the proper return path from AS 387?
A: Use local preference in AS 387.
Q: Will the administrator of AS 387 configure it?
A: Unlikely.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-13
AS Path Prepending
• BGP route selection uses these criteria:
- Prefer largest weight.
- Prefer largest local preference.
- Prefer routes that the router originated.
- Prefer shorter AS paths.
- Use other route selection rules.
• Manipulating the outgoing AS path length (called AS path prepending)
could result in proper return path selection.
• The AS path should be extended with multiple copies of the AS number
of the sender.
• AS path prepending is used to achieve these goals:
- Ensure proper return path selection.
- Distribute the return traffic load for multihomed customers.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-14
AS Path Prepending (Cont.)
• Result: The return traffic flows over the desired return path.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-15
AS Path Prepending
Design Considerations
• There is no exact mechanism to calculate the required prepended AS
path length.
• If a primary and backup scenario is desired, consider this strategy:
- Use a long prepended AS path over the backup link to ensure that the
primary AS path will always be shorter.
- A long backup AS path consumes memory on every Internet router.
- Experiment with various AS path lengths until the backup link
is idle.
- Add a few more AS numbers for additional security (unexpected
changes in the Internet).
• If traffic load distribution is desired, consider this strategy:
- Start with a short prepended AS path, monitor the link use, and
extend the prepended path length as needed.
- Continuously monitor the link use and change the prepended
AS path length if required.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-16
Configuring AS Path Prepending
Prepends the specified AS
number sequence to the routes route-policy to_SP4
matched by the RPL entry prepend as-path 10 2

router bgp 10
route-map to_SP2 permit neighbor SP4
set as-path prepend 99 99 address-family ipv4 unicast
route-policy to_SP4 out
router bgp Customer-AS
neighbor SP2 route-map to_SP2 out
SP1 (AS 10) SP3 (AS 30)
Customer (AS 99)

AS numbers prepended to the

AS path from the BGP table

SP4 (AS 40)

SP2 (AS 20)

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-17
Monitoring AS Path Prepending
• AS path prepending cannot be monitored or debugged on the sending
router.
- debug bgp (debug ip bgp) updates displays the BGP entry prior to RPL or
route map processing.
- show policy-map (show route-map) does not display how many routes have
matched a RPL or route map entry.
• The results of AS path prepending can be observed on the receiving
router.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-18
AS Path Filtering Concerns: AS Path Prepending
Service providers usually use AS
path filters to control incoming BGP
updates from their customers.
To support AS path
prepending, service
providers should implement
regular expression variables
to create a uniform AS path
filter for all customers.

^([0-9]+)(_\1)*$

The incoming AS path filters

of the service provider need
to be modified to support AS
path prepending.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-19
Selecting the Proper Return Path
• You can use the MED to influence path selection in a neighbor AS.
• An AS can specify its preferred entry point by using the MED in outgoing
EBGP updates.
How can you make sure that the
return traffic takes the right path?

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-20
MED Propagation in a BGP Network

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-21
Changing the MED
• The MED is copied from the IGP cost in the router that sources the route
(via the network command or through route redistribution).
• You can change the MED value for redistributed routes with the default-
metric command.
router bgp SP1-AS
Changes the default MED default-metric value

router bgp SP1-AS

Changes per neighbor MED neighbor SP3-AS
address-family ipv4 unicast
route-policy from_SP3 out
router bgp Customer-AS
default-metric value
SP1 SP3
Customer

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-22
Advanced MED Configuration
Cisco IOS/IOS XE Cisco IOS XR
By default, the MED is considered only during the
selection of routes from the same AS. bgp always-compare- bgp bestpath
The MED is also considered for routes coming med med always
from a different AS.
If the MED is not attached to a BGP route, it is bgp bestpath
interpreted as value 0, and thus as the best bgp bestpath med
med missing-as-
metric. A missing MED is interpreted as infinity missing-med-worst
worst
(worst).
By default, the MED is considered only during the
selection of routes from the same AS, which does
not include intraconfederation autonomous bgp bestpath med bgp bestpath
systems. confed med confed
Allow routers to compare paths learned from
confederation peers.

bgp deterministic-
Changes the BGP route selection procedure to a med default
deterministic but slower one.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-23
Monitoring the MED
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1#show bgp MED is displayed as
< text omitted > metric.
Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete
Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 10.1.1.1/32 0.0.0.0 0 32768 i
*> 10.1.10.1/32 192.168.101.11 0 0 64501 i
*>i10.2.1.1/32 10.2.1.1 0 100 0 i
*>i10.2.10.1/32 10.2.1.1 0 100 0 64502 i
< text omitted >
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE1#show bgp 10.1.10.1/32
< text omitted > MED is displayed only for those
Paths: (1 available, best #1) routes that contain a MED
Advertised to peers (in unique update groups): attribute.
10.0.1.1
Path #1: Received by speaker 0
Advertised to peers (in unique update groups):
10.0.1.1
64501
192.168.101.11 from 192.168.101.11 (10.1.10.1)
Origin IGP, metric 0, localpref 100, valid, external, best, group-best
Received Path ID 0, Local Path ID 1, version 9

Customer SP1
Both the original and the
modified routes are
displayed when inbound
soft reconfiguration is
configured.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-24
BGP Communities Overview
• BGP communities are a means of tagging routes to ensure a consistent
filtering or route selection policy.
• The community attribute is a transitive optional attribute. Its value is a
32-bit number (range 0 to 4,294,967,200).
• The standards define several filtering-oriented communities:
- no-advertise: Do not advertise routes to any peer.
- no-export: Do not advertise routes to real EBGP peers.
- local-as: Do not advertise routes to any EBGP peers.
- internet: Advertise this route to the Internet community.
• A 32-bit community value is split into two parts:
- High-order 16 bits contain the AS number of the AS that defines the
community meaning.
- Low-order 16 bits have local significance.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-25
Using Communities
• Define administrative policy goals:
- Solve asymmetrical customer routing problems.
• Design filters and route selection policy to achieve administrative goals:
- Set local preference of customer routes to 50 for customers using the backup
service provider.
• Define communities that signal individual goals:
- Community 387:17 is used to indicate that the local preference of the route
should be lowered to 50.
• Configure route tagging on entry points, or let BGP neighbors tag the
routes.
• Configure community distribution.
• Configure route filters and route selection parameters, based on
communities.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-26
Configuring BGP Communities
Use these procedures to configure BGP communities:
• Configure route tagging with BGP communities.
• Configure BGP community propagation.
• Define BGP community access lists (community lists) to match BGP
communities.
• Configure RPLs or route maps that match on community lists and filter
routes, or set other BGP attributes.
• Apply RPLs or route maps to incoming or outgoing updates.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-27
Configuring Route Tagging with
BGP Communities

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-28
Configuring Community Propagation:
Cisco IOS/IOS XE

By default, communities are

stripped in outgoing BGP
updates. Manually configure
community propagation.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-29
Defining BGP Community Lists: Cisco IOS/IOS
XE

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-30
BGP Named Community Lists
• Naming allows the network operator to assign meaningful names to
community lists, and increases the number of community lists that can
be configured.
• Named community lists can be configured with regular expressions and
with numbered community lists.
• There is no limitation on the number of community attributes that can be
configured for a named community list.
• The number of community lists that can be configured by a network
operator increases, because there is no limitation on the number of
named community lists that can be configured.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-31
BGP Support for Sequenced Entries in Extended
Community Lists
• Allows automatic sequencing of individual entries in BGP extended
community lists
• Provides the ability to remove or resequence extended community list
entries without deleting the entire existing extended community list
• Configures sequence numbers for extended community list entries
• Resequences the existing sequence numbers for extended community
list entries
• Configures an extended community list to use default values

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-32
Matching BGP Communities

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-33
Monitoring Communities
• Communities are displayed in a show bgp prefix printout.
• Communities are not displayed in debugging outputs.
• Routes in the BGP table that are tagged with a set of communities, or
routes matching a community list, can be displayed.
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE5#show bgp 10.5.10.1/32
< text omitted >
Paths: (1 available, best #1)
Advertised to update-groups (with more than one peer):
0.1
Path #1: Received by speaker 0
Advertised to update-groups (with more than one peer):
0.1
64505
192.168.105.51 from 192.168.105.51 (10.5.100.1)
Origin IGP, metric 0, localpref 100, valid, external, best, group-best
Received Path ID 0, Local Path ID 1, version 66
Community: 1:100

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:PE5# show bgp route-policy com1

< text omitted >
Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 10.5.10.1/32 192.168.105.51 0 0 64505 i
* 10.5.100.1/32 192.168.105.51 0 0 64505 i

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-34
Example 1: Standard Community Set
! route-policy Comm2ActionIn router bgp 23456
community-set Primary if community matches-any Primary then neighbor 200.1.1.1
23456:200 set local-preference 200 remote-as 64511
1
end-set endif address-family ipv4 unicast
! ! route-policy Comm2ActionIn in
community-set Backup if community matches-any Backup then
23456:50 set local-preference 50
end-set endif router bgp 23456
! ! neighbor 200.2.2.2
community-set 1Prep end-policy remote-as 64123 2
23456:1 ! address-family ipv4 unicast
end-set route-policy Comm2ActionOut route-policy Comm2ActionOut out
! if community matches-any 1Prep then
community-set 2Preps prepend as-path 23456 1
23456:2 endif Customer can signal ISP using
end-set ! communities:
! if community matches-any 2Preps then
community-set 3Preps prepend as-path 23456 2 23456:200  LP 200
23456:3 endif 23456:50  LP 50
end-set !
! if community matches-any 3Preps then
23456:1  AS prepended once
prepend as-path 23456 3 23456:2  AS prepended twice
endif 23456:3  AS prepended three times
end-policy

AS 23456 Prepend
AS 64511 Communities Communities AS 64123
(Customer) Local Preference (Peering
1 2
Service
(Service Provider)
Provider)
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-35
Example 2: Standard Community Set
Filter routes are based
on standard community
attributes, using simple
numbered matching.

community-set ImpComms
BGP Update 23456:10
NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24 end-set
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 !
Origin: igp
route-policy RP1 
if community matches-any ImpComms then
AS Path: 10 20 30 pass
Community: endif
23456:10 end-policy
23456:20 !
23456:30 route-policy RP2 
if community matches-every ImpComms then
pass
endif
end-policy
!

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-36
Example 3: Standard Community Set
Filter routes are based
on standard
community attributes,
using range matching.

community-set ImpComms
BGP Update 23456:999,
NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24 23456:[10..30]
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 end-set
!
Origin: igp
route-policy RP1 
AS Path: 10 20 30 if community matches-any ImpComms then
Community: pass
23456:10 endif
23456:20 end-policy
23456:30 !
route-policy RP2 
if community matches-every ImpComms then
pass
endif
end-policy
!

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-37
Example 4: Standard Community Set
Filter routes, based on
standard community
attributes, using
regular expressions.

community-set ImpComms
BGP Update ios-regex ‘23456:999',
NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24 ios-regex '23456:[1-3]0'
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 end-set
!
Origin: igp
route-policy RP1 
AS Path: 10 20 30 if community matches-any ImpComms then
Community: pass
23456:10 endif
23456:20 end-policy
23456:30 !
route-policy RP2 
if community matches-every ImpComms then
pass
endif
end-policy
!

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-38
Example 5: Standard Community Set
• On incoming updates, delete all communities that have no meaning in
your AS 23456.

Original BGP Update

NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 New BGP Update
Delete unused
Origin: igp extended community NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
AS Path: 10 20 30 attributes. Next-hop: 192.168.1.1
Community:
Origin: igp
23456:10 community-set AllMyCommunities AS Path: 10 20 30
23456:20 23456:* Community:
23456:30 end-set
23456:10
64111:12 !
route-policy RP1 23456:20
64222:33
delete community not in 23456:30
AllMyCommunities
end-policy
!

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-39
Example 6: Standard Community Set
• On outgoing updates, delete all communities that have no meaning in
peering AS 64111.

Original BGP Update

NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 New BGP Update
Delete extended
Origin: igp community attributes NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
AS Path: 10 20 30 not used in peering AS. Next-hop: 192.168.1.1
Community:
Origin: igp
23456:10 route-policy RP AS Path: 10 20 30
23456:20 delete community not in Community:
23456:30 (peeras:*)
64111:12
64111:12 end-policy
64222:33
!

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-40
Example 7: Standard Community Set
• Delete all communities except well-known communities (e.g. no-export,
no-advertise, local-as)

Original BGP Update

NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
Next-hop: 192.168.1.1 New BGP Update
Delete all communities
Origin: igp except well-known NLRI: 10.1.1.0/24
AS Path: 10 20 30 communities. Next-hop: 192.168.1.1
Community:
Origin: igp
no-export route-policy RP AS Path: 10 20 30
23456:20 delete community all Community:
23456:30 end-policy
no-export
64111:12 !
64222:33

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-41
Summary
• BGP weights can be used to influence the BGP route selection process.
• Weight can be configured on a BGP session and is applied to incoming
BGP updates.
• Weight can be changed using route maps or RPL.
• Weight setting is applicable only on incoming routes because a router
never propagates the weight attribute to its neighbors.
• Local preference is similar to the weight attribute in that you can use
both to influence BGP path selection, but it differs from the BGP weight
attribute in that weight is local to the specific router on which it is
configured.
• Local preference is set to 100 by default and can be changed using
route maps and RPL.
• You can determine local preference of a route by examining the BGP
table.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-42
Summary (Cont.)
• You can use AS path prepending to influence incoming path selection.
• AS path prepending is performed on outgoing EBGP updates over the
nondesired return path, or the path where the traffic load should be
reduced.
• You can configure AS path prepending using route maps or RPL.
• When you are monitoring AS path prepending, the router doing the
prepending is not the proper point to observe the results of the AS path
prepend operation.
• Service providers should take into account possible AS path prepending
done by customers when designing AS path filters.
• The MED is a “weak” parameter in the route selection process; it is used
only if weight, local preference, AS path, and origin code are equal. By
default, the MED is compared only for paths that were received from the
same AS.
• You can use the RPL or a route map to set the MED on incoming or
outgoing updates.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-43
Summary (Cont.)
• You can determine MED of a route by examining the BGP table.
• BGP communities are a means of tagging routes to ensure consistent
filtering or routing policy.
• You can use the BGP community attribute to create an AS-wide routing
policy or to provide services to neighboring autonomous systems.
• The BGP named community lists feature allows the network operator to
assign meaningful names to community lists.
• BGP support for sequenced entries allows automatic sequencing of
individual entries in BGP extended community lists.
• You can use the RPL or route maps to match routes that carry specific
BGP communities.
• You can use the show bgp prefix command to examine BGP
communities that the route is tagged with.
• You can use BGP communities to allow customers to signal preference
of a specific path to the SP. SP than performs route manipulation based
on received communities.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-44
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPROUTE v1.01—5-45