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Regarding load balancing

ncnaveen_arasu
Level 1
Level 1

HI Team,

Normally if we do load balancing over multiple links either over static or dynamic protocols. What method of load balancing it will do and what are the difrent types available for load balancing

Thanks in advance

Naveen

3 Replies 3

Raju Sekharan
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi

default is per-destination load-balancing.

You can also use  per-packet load-balancing. but this can cause out of order packets

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2033/prod_technical_reference09186a00800afeb7.html

Thanks

Raju

Abzal
Level 7
Level 7

Hi,

I hope you are asking about CEF load balancing methods. As rajs2 already said there are two of them. Per-destination method all packets for a given destination are forwarded along the same path. Packets comes in order but might lead unequal usage of links. Per-packet guarantees equal usage of links but may cause packets coming out of order because at destinations might be differential delays. CEF uses FIB to make forwarding decisions. FIB is just like routing table it is based on it. And uses adjacency table for Layer 2 information it contains Layer 2 headers info for every entry in FIB.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2033/prod_technical_reference09186a00800afeb7.html

Hope it will help.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

Best regards,
Abzal

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

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Posting

Routing load balancing generally directs packet flows to the same path.  This to maintain flow packet sequence.

Path selection, per flow, might be round robined, i.e. "cycles" to the next path when there's a new flow.  Or it might be deterministic based on flow's attributes (similar to Etherchannel).  (I recall CEF might be deterministic, as I also recall there's a way to change CEF bias for optimal load balancing across multiple hops.)

Some routing will round robin individual packets, as does optional CEF packet-by-packet (as noted by the other posters), and process switched packets are round robined too, I believe.

Most routing load balancing is only for supported for equal cost paths but Cisco's EIGRP supports unequal cost paths (proportional sharing).

Most routing load balancing doesn't account for current interface load but Cisco's OER/PfR can perform dynamic load balancing, i.e. it can track actual interface usage.  It can move individual flows to specific egress interfaces.  (It also supports proportional loading.)