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Port Hopping & Port Offset

What is the difference between Port Hopping & Port Offset ?

From what I could understand, Port Offset gives a bigger range of ports that can be used. I might have misunderstood this so I need someone to explain this to me.

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svemulap@cisco.com
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee
hi AhmedElHiramy0999 -

Port Hopping:
{from CCO documentation}

The default base source port is 12346. The WAN Edge may use port hopping where the devices try different source ports when trying to establish connections to each other in case the connection attempt on the first port fails. The WAN Edge will increment the port by 20 and try ports 12366, 12386, 12406, and 12426 before returning to 12346. Port hopping is configured by default on a WAN Edge router, but you can disable it globally or on a per-tunnel-interface basis. It is recommended to run port-hopping at the branches but disable this feature on SD-WAN routers in the data center, regional hub, or any place where aggregate traffic exists because connections can be disrupted if port hopping occurs. Note that port hopping is disabled on the controllers by default and should be kept disabled. Control connections on vManage and the vSmart controller with multiple cores have a different base port for each core.



Port Offset:
{from CCO documentation}

For WAN Edge routers that sit behind the same NAT device and share a public IP address, you do not want each WAN Edge to attempt to connect to the same controller using the same port number. Although NAT or port hopping may allow both devices to use a unique source port, you can instead configure an offset to the base port number of 12346, so the port attempts will be unique (and more deterministic) among the WAN Edge routers. A port offset of 1 will cause the WAN Edge to use the base port of 12347, and then port-hop with ports 12367, 12387, 12407, and 12427. Port offsets need to be explicitly configured, and by default, the port offset is 0.

Documentation Link
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/CVD/SDWAN/cisco-sdwan-design-guide.html?dtid=osscdc000283#FirewallPortConsiderations


HTH

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1 Reply 1

svemulap@cisco.com
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee
hi AhmedElHiramy0999 -

Port Hopping:
{from CCO documentation}

The default base source port is 12346. The WAN Edge may use port hopping where the devices try different source ports when trying to establish connections to each other in case the connection attempt on the first port fails. The WAN Edge will increment the port by 20 and try ports 12366, 12386, 12406, and 12426 before returning to 12346. Port hopping is configured by default on a WAN Edge router, but you can disable it globally or on a per-tunnel-interface basis. It is recommended to run port-hopping at the branches but disable this feature on SD-WAN routers in the data center, regional hub, or any place where aggregate traffic exists because connections can be disrupted if port hopping occurs. Note that port hopping is disabled on the controllers by default and should be kept disabled. Control connections on vManage and the vSmart controller with multiple cores have a different base port for each core.



Port Offset:
{from CCO documentation}

For WAN Edge routers that sit behind the same NAT device and share a public IP address, you do not want each WAN Edge to attempt to connect to the same controller using the same port number. Although NAT or port hopping may allow both devices to use a unique source port, you can instead configure an offset to the base port number of 12346, so the port attempts will be unique (and more deterministic) among the WAN Edge routers. A port offset of 1 will cause the WAN Edge to use the base port of 12347, and then port-hop with ports 12367, 12387, 12407, and 12427. Port offsets need to be explicitly configured, and by default, the port offset is 0.

Documentation Link
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/CVD/SDWAN/cisco-sdwan-design-guide.html?dtid=osscdc000283#FirewallPortConsiderations


HTH