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• LFA calculations are restricted to interfaces or links belonging to the same level or area. Hence, excluding
all neighbors on the same LAN when computing the backup LFA can result in repairs being unavailable
in a subset of topologies.
• Only physical and physical port-channel interfaces are protected. Subinterfaces, tunnels, and virtual
interfaces are not protected.
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Prefix-Independent Convergence (PIC) and IP FRR can be configured
on the same interface as long as they are not used for the same prefix.
IS-IS and IP FRR
When a local link fails in a network, IS-IS recomputes new primary next-hop routes for all affected prefixes.
These prefixes are updated in the RIB and the Forwarding Information Base (FIB). Until the primary prefixes
are updated in the forwarding plane, traffic directed towards the affected prefixes are discarded. This process
can take hundreds of milliseconds.
In IP FRR, IS-IS computes LFA next-hop routes for the forwarding plane to use in case of primary path
failures. LFA is computed per prefix.
When there are multiple LFAs for a given primary path, IS-IS uses a tiebreaking rule to pick a single LFA
for a primary path. In case of a primary path with multiple LFA paths, prefixes are distributed equally among
LFA paths.
Repair Paths
Repair paths forward traffic during a routing transition. When a link or a router fails, due to the loss of a
physical layer signal, initially, only the neighboring routers are aware of the failure. All other routers in the
network are unaware of the nature and location of this failure until information about this failure is propagated
through a routing protocol, which may take several hundred milliseconds. It is, therefore, necessary to arrange
for packets affected by the network failure to be steered to their destinations.
A router adjacent to the failed link employs a set of repair paths for packets that would have used the failed
link. These repair paths are used from the time the router detects the failure until the routing transition is
complete. By the time the routing transition is complete, all routers in the network revise their forwarding
data and the failed link is eliminated from the routing computation.
Repair paths are precomputed in anticipation of failures so that they can be activated the moment a failure is
detected.
The LFA FRR feature uses the following repair paths:
• Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) uses a link as a member of an equal cost path-split set for a destination.
The other members of the set can provide an alternative path when the link fails.
• LFA is a next-hop route that delivers a packet to its destination without looping back. Downstream paths
are a subset of LFAs.
Routing Configuration Guide for Cisco NCS 6000 Series Routers, IOS XR Release 6.4.x
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Implementing IP Fast Reroute Loop-Free Alternate
IS-IS and IP FRR