Understanding Floating Static Routes for Redundancy in Networking
Floating static routes are an essential mechanism for achieving primary and backup paths within a network, especially in scenarios where there are mismatched link speeds. This feature allows for increased reliability and redundancy in routing.
Consider the following static routes:
Primary Route:
ip route 8.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 192.168.12.2 11
In this case, the route to the destination network 8.0.0.0/8 is configured with an administrative distance (AD) of 11, making it the preferred route.
Backup Route:
ip route 8.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 192.168.13.2
This secondary route does not have a specified AD, defaulting to the standard value of 20. As a result, this route becomes a floating static route, which will only be used if the primary route becomes unavailable.
Administrative Distance
It's important to note that an AD of 255 indicates an unknown route, meaning it will never be chosen by the routing table. In contrast, lower AD values indicate higher preference. The configuration above demonstrates how the primary and backup paths work together to ensure continued network connectivity.
By utilizing floating static routes, network engineers can create robust routing topologies that automatically adjust to link failures or performance issues, thereby enhancing overall network resilience.
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