Traffic Engineering policies configuration

Traffic Dictator supports a variety of Traffic Engineering policies.

Some configuration elements applicable to SR-TE and EPE policies are:

  • Headend: IGP Traffic Engineering Router-ID in IPv4 format. EPE-only policies do not have headend as they ignore IGP topology.
  • Endpoint: IPv4 or IPv6 address of the policy endpoint. It must match a relevant IGP prefix or BGP peer. Null endpoints (0.0.0.0 or ::) are also supported.
  • Color (only for SR-TE): a numeric value used to map services to SR-TE policies. BGP routes with color extended community matching policy color will be mapped to that policy.
  • Service-loopback (only for BGP-LU): A replacement for color that can be used with routers that don’t support SR-TE.
  • Binding-SID (only for SR-TE): An MPLS label from headend SRLB that can be used to map traffic fo the policy.
  • Setup and hold priority (values 0 to 7, lower is better): Used for bandwidth reservations to determine which policy gets preference.
  • Install method: A policy can be advertised directly to a BGP peer (using BGP SR-TE or BGP-LU) or indirectly to one or multiple BGP route reflectors. With indirect install, headend router-ID is attached to the BGP route as route target.
  • Candidate paths: Traffic Dictator will calculate candidate paths starting from higher preference. If a candidate path fails, next candidate path is evaluated.

Candidate paths have the following configuration elements:

  • Explicit path: can be used to steer traffic via specific links or nodes. If not specified, dynamic path is used.
  • Metric type: IGP or TE metric. If not specified, IGP metric is used.
  • Affinity-set: used to include or exclude links with specific affinities (also known as admin groups or colors).
  • Bandwidth: requested bandwidth that policy will try to reserve.

 

Check out the relevant chapter for details about SR-TE policies and config examples.