In Bidirectional Forwarding Detection for IPv6 (BFDv6) associated mode, an IPv6 static route is automatically associated with an IPv6 static BFDv6 neighbor if the static route next hop exactly matches the static BFDv6 neighbor.

An IPv6 static route requests a BFDv6 session for each static BFDv6 neighbor that has one or more associated IPv6 static routes and is configured over an interface on which BFD has been configured. The state of the BFDv6 session will be used to determine whether the associated IPv6 static routes are inserted in the IPv6 RIB. For example, static routes are inserted in the IPv6 RIB only if the BFDv6 neighbor is reachable, and the static route is removed from the IPv6 RIB if the BFDv6 neighbor subsequently becomes unreachable.

BFDv6 associated mode requires you to configure a BFD neighbor and static route on both the device on which the BFD-monitored static route is required and on the neighboring device.

An IPv6 static BFD neighbor may be configured as unassociated. In this mode, the neighbor is not associated with static routes, and the neighbor always requests a BFDv6 session if the interface has been configured for BFDv6.

Unassociated mode is useful in the following situations:

• Bringing up a BFDv6 session in the absence of an IPv6 static route—This case occurs when a static route is on router A, with router B as the next hop. Associated mode requires you to create both a static BFD neighbor and static route on both routers in order to bring up the BFDv6 session from B to A. Specifying the static BFD neighbor in unassociated mode on router B avoids the need to configure an unwanted static route.

• Transition to BFD monitoring of a static route—This case occurs when existing IPv6 static routes are inserted in the IPv6 RIB. Here, you want to enable BFD monitoring for these static routes without any interruption to traffic. If you configure an attached IPv6 static BFD neighbor, then the static routes will immediately be associated with the new static BFD neighbor. However, because a static BFD neighbor starts in a down state, the associated static routes are then removed from the IPv6 RIB and are reinserted when the BFDv6 session comes up. Therefore, you will see an interruption in traffic. This interruption can be avoided by configuring the static BFD neighbor as unassociated, waiting until the BFDv6 session has come up, and then reconfiguring the static BFD neighbor as associated.

• Transition from BFD monitoring of a static route—In this case, IPv6 static routes are monitored by BFD and inserted in the RIB. Here, you want to disable BFD monitoring of the static routes without interrupting traffic flow. This scenario can be achieved by first reconfiguring the static BFD neighbor as detached (thus disassociating the neighbor from the static routes) and then deconfiguring the static BFD neighbor.