ip cef and ipv6 cef
ip cef load-sharing algorithm and ipv6 cef load-sharing algorithm :
- Original algorithm: As the name suggests, this is the original unseeded implementation prone to CEF polarization.
- Universal algorithm: An improved algorithm using the Universal ID to avoid the CEF polarization.
- Tunnel algorithm: A further improvement on the Universal algorithm especially suitable to environments where tunnels are extensively deployed, possibly resulting in arelatively small number of outer source/destination pairs. Avoids the CEF polarization. Might not be available for IPv6 CEF.
- L4 port algorithm: Based on the Universal algorithm while also taking the L4 source and/or destination ports into account. Avoids the CEF polarization.
mls ip cef load-sharing (6500/7600):
■ Default ( default mls ip cef load-sharing ): Uses source and destination IP, plus the
Universal ID if supported by the hardware. Avoids CEF polarization.
■ Full ( mls ip cef load-sharing full ): Uses source IP, destination IP, source L4 port, and
destination L4 port. Does not use Universal ID. Prone to CEF polarization. However,
to alleviate its impact, this load-balancing algorithm causes the traffic to split equally
among multiple paths only if the number of paths is odd. With an even number of
parallel paths, the ratio of traffic split will not be uniform.
■ Simple ( mls ip cef load-sharing simple ): Uses source and destination IP only. Does
not use Universal ID. Prone to CEF polarization.
■ Full Simple ( mls ip cef load-sharing full simple ): Uses source IP, destination IP,
source L4 port, and destination L4 port. Does not use Universal ID. Prone to CEF
polarization. The difference from Full mode is that all parallel paths receive an equal
weight, and fewer adjacency entries in hardware are used. This mode avoids unequal
traffic split seen with Full mode.
unique-ID/universal-ID – adds a 32-bit router-specific value to the hash function (called the universal ID – this is a randomly generated value at the time of the switch boot up that can can be manually controlled). This unique -ID concept does not work for an even number of equal-cost paths due to a hardware limitation, but it works perfectly for an odd number of equal-cost paths. In order to overcome this problem, Cisco IOS adds one link to the hardware adjacency table when there is an even number of equal-cost paths in order to make the system believe that there is an odd number of equal-cost links.
CEF Polarization: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/express-forwarding-cef/116376-technote-cef-00.html
CEF description: http://xgu.ru/wiki/Cisco_Express_Forwarding