BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

The BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support feature enables Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to use multihop Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) support, which improves BGP convergence as BFD detection and failure times are faster than the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) convergence times in most network topologies.

The BFD—BGP cBIT feature allows BGP to determine if BFD failure is dependent or independent of the Control Plane. This allows BGP greater flexibility in handling BFD down events.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest caveats and feature information, see Bug Search Tool and the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the feature information table at the end of this module.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/​go/​cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Restrictions for BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

  • For BGP IPv4 and BGP IPv6 peering sessions only, multihop BFD support is available for BGP for address-family IPv4 and IPv6 unicast.

  • For multihop BGP sessions using IPv6 Link Local addresses, BFD multihop support is not available.

  • Currently BFD Hardware offload is not supported for multihop BFD sessions and so C-bit will not be set for multihop sessions.

  • Multihop BFD for IPv6 Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) is not supported.

  • BGP session attribute for BFD does not change dynamically when BGP session changes from single-hop to multihop, hence you need to clear the existing BGP session to reinitiate multihop BFD session.

Information About BFD - BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

BFD is a detection protocol that is designed to provide fast forwarding path failure detection times for all media types, encapsulations, topologies, and routing protocols. In addition to fast forwarding path failure detection, BFD provides a consistent failure detection method for network administrators. Because the network administrator can use BFD to detect forwarding path failures at a uniform rate, rather than the variable rates for different routing protocol hello mechanisms, network profiling and planning is easier, and reconvergence time is consistent and predictable. The main benefit of implementing BFD for BGP is a significantly faster reconvergence time. For internal BGP (iBGP) sessions and external BGP (eBGP) sessions that are either single hop or multihop, BGP can use of the multihop BFD support to help improve the BGP convergence because BFD detection and failure times are faster than the IGP convergence times in most of the network topologies. BGP needs the support of multihop BFD as described in RFC5882, Generic Application of Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD).

BGP by default will purge the routes received from a specific peer when a BFD down event occurs and BFD informs BGP about it. The cBit in BFD determines whether BFD is dependent or independent of the Control Plane. Clients like BGP, whose peers are enabled with fast fall over feature with BFD support, can use this BFD cBit support to provide a more deterministic mechanism to do nonstop forwarding (NSF) when BGP graceful restart is enabled along with BFD fast-fallover support for BGP sessions.

When BGP is using BFD for the fast fallover feature for remote connectivity detection, BFD can detect some of those failures. If BFD is independent of the control plane, a BFD session failure means that data cannot be forwarded anymore (due to link control failures) and so the BGP graceful restart procedures should be aborted to avoid traffic black holes. On the other hand, when BFD is dependent on the control plane, a BFD failure cannot be separated out from the other events taking place in the control plane. When the control plane crashes, a switchover happens and BFD restarts. It is best for the clients (like BGP) to avoid any aborts due to the graceful restart taking place.

The table below describes the handling of BFD down events by BGP.

Table 1 BGP handling of BFD Down Event

BFD Down Event

Failure—Control Plane Independent?

BGP Action for NSF (when GR and BFD are enabled)

BGP control plane detection failure enabled

Yes

Purge Routes

BGP control plane detection failure enabled

No

Carry on NSF and keep stale routes in Routing Information Base (RIB)

BGP control plane detection failure disabled (the default behavior)

Yes

Purge Routes

BGP control plane detection failure disabled (the default behavior)

No

Purge Routes

How to Configure BFD - BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

Configuring BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

Before You Begin

Note

The multihop BFD minimum detection time should be higher than IGP convergence times in your network to ensure that down events are not mistakenly identified during reconvergences, causing multihop BGP sessions to flap.

SUMMARY STEPS

    1.    enable

    2.    configure terminal

    3.    router bgp autonomous-system-number

    4.    neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number

    5.    neighbor ip-address update-source interface-type interface-number

    6.    neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number

    7.    neighbor ip-address ebgp-multihop ttl

    8.    neighbor ip-address fall-over bfd

    9.    neighbor ip-address fall-over bfd check-control-plane-failure

    10.    end


DETAILED STEPS
     Command or ActionPurpose
    Step 1 enable


    Example:
    Device> enable
     

    Enables privileged EXEC mode.

    • Enter your password if prompted.

     
    Step 2 configure terminal


    Example:
    Device# configure terminal
     

    Enters global configuration mode.

     
    Step 3 router bgp autonomous-system-number


    Example:
    Device(config)# router bgp 50000
     

    Configures the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing process and enters router configuration mode.

     
    Step 4 neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 remote-as 100
     

    Adds an entry to the BGP or multiprotocol BGP neighbor table.

     
    Step 5 neighbor ip-address update-source interface-type interface-number


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 update-source GigabitEthernet 0/0/0
     

    Allows BGP sessions to use any operational interface for TCP connections.

     
    Step 6 neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 remote-as 100
     

    Adds an entry to the BGP or multiprotocol BGP neighbor table.

     
    Step 7 neighbor ip-address ebgp-multihop ttl


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 ebgp-multihop 4
     

    Accepts and attempts BGP connections to external peers residing on networks that are not directly connected.

     
    Step 8 neighbor ip-address fall-over bfd


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 fall-over bfd
     

    Enables BGP to monitor the peering session of a specified neighbor for adjacency changes and to deactivate the peering session.

     
    Step 9 neighbor ip-address fall-over bfd check-control-plane-failure


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.0.0.2 fall-over bfd check-control-plane-failure
     

    Configures BGP BFD with control plane independence enabled for BFD cBit support.

     
    Step 10 end


    Example:
    Device(config-router)# end
     

    Exits router configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC mode.

     

    Configuration Examples for BFD - BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4 and IPv6)

    Example: Configuring BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4/IPv6)

    
! Configure BFD test client
bfd neighbor multihop-ipv4  10.0.0.2  10.0.0.1
bfd neighbor multihop-ipv4  10.0.0.3  10.0.0.4
bfd map ipv4  1.1.1.0/24  1.1.1.1/24 mh
bfd map ipv4  10.0.0.2/24  10.0.0.1/32 mh
bfd map ipv4  10.0.0.3/24  10.0.0.4/32 mh

! Configure BFD template
bfd-template multi-hop mh
 interval min-tx 750 min-rx 750 multiplier 3
 authentication md5 keychain qq

! Enable Interface with BFD support:
interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/0
 description Backbone interface
 ip address 10.0.0.4 255.255.255.0
 no ip redirects
! shutdown
 mpls ip
 bfd interval 200 min_rx 300 multiplier 3

!Enable BGP BFD multihop support:

router bgp 100
neighbor 10.0.0.3 remote-as 100
neighbor 10.0.0.3 update-source GigabitEthernet 0/0/0
neighbor 10.0.0.3 fall-over bfd

neighbor 10.0.0.2 remote-as 100
neighbor 10.0.0.2 ebgp-multihop 4
neighbor 10.0.0.2 fall-over bfd

! Enable BGP BFD with control plane independence(for bfd C-bit support):

neighbor 10.0.0.3 fall-over bfd  check-control-plane-failure

    Additional References

    Related Documents

    Related Topic

    Document Title

    Cisco IOS commands

    Cisco IOS Master Command List, All Releases

    BGP commands

    Cisco IOS IP Routing: BGP Command Reference

    Technical Assistance

    Description

    Link

    The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides online resources to download documentation, software, and tools. Use these resources to install and configure the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

    http:/​/​www.cisco.com/​cisco/​web/​support/​index.html

    Feature Information for BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4/IPv6)

    The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

    Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/​go/​cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

    Table 2 Feature Information for BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4/IPv6)

    Feature Name

    Releases

    Feature Information

    BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support and cBit (IPv4/IPv6)

    15.2(4)S

    Cisco IOS XE Release 3.6S

    Cisco IOS XE Release 3.7S

    The BFD—BGP Multihop Client Support feature enables Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to use multihop Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) support, which improves BGP convergence as BFD detection and failure times are faster than the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) convergence times in most of network topologies.

    The BFD—BGP cBIT feature allows BGP to determine if BFD failure is dependent or independent of the Control Plane. This allows BGP greater flexibility in handling BFD down events.

    In Cisco IOS XE Release 3.7S, support was added for the Cisco ASR 903 router.

    The following commands were modified: neighbor fall-over and show ip bgp neighbors.