Connectivity Guide

2 Prefer the path that is locally originated using the network command, redistribute command, or aggregate-address
command. Routes originated using a network or redistribute command are preferred over routes that originate with the
aggregate-address command.
3 (Optional) If you congure the bgp bestpath as-path ignore command, skip this step because AS_PATH is not considered.
Prefer the path with the shortest AS_PATH:
• An AS_SET has a path length of 1 no matter how many are in the set
• A path with no AS_PATH congured has a path length of 0
• AS_CONFED_SET is not included in the AS_PATH length
• AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE has a path length of 1 no matter how many ASs are in the AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE
4 Prefer the path with the lowest ORIGIN type—IGP is lower than EGP and EGP is lower than INCOMPLETE.
5 Prefer the path with the lowest multiexit discriminator (MED) attribute:
• This comparison is only done if the rst neighboring AS is the same in the two paths. The MEDs compare only if the rst AS in the
AS_SEQUENCE is the same for both paths.
• Congure the bgp always-compare-med command to compare MEDs for all paths.
• Paths with no MED are treated as “worst” and assigned a MED of 4294967295.
6 Prefer external (EBGP) to internal (IBGP) paths or confederation EBGP paths, and prefer the path with the lowest IGP metric to the
BGP next-hop.
7 The system deems the paths as equal and only performs the following steps if the criteria are not met:
• Congure the IBGP multipath or EBGP multipath using the maximum-path command.
• The paths being compared were received from the same AS with the same number of AS in the AS Path but with dierent next-
hops.
• The paths were received from IBGP or EBGP neighbor, respectively.
8 If you enable the bgp bestpath router-id ignore command and:
• If the Router-ID is the same for multiple paths because the routes were received from the same route—skip this step.
• If the Router-ID is not the same for multiple paths, prefer the path that was rst received as the Best Path. The path selection
algorithm returns without performing any of the checks detailed.
9 Prefer the external path originated from the BGP router with the lowest router ID. If both paths are external, prefer the oldest path—
rst received path. For paths containing an RR attribute, the originator ID is substituted for the router ID. If two paths have the same
router ID, prefer the path with the lowest cluster ID length. Paths without a cluster ID length are set to a 0 cluster ID length.
10 Prefer the path originated from the neighbor with the lowest address. The neighbor address is used in the BGP neighbor conguration
and corresponds to the remote peer used in the TCP connection with the local router.
In Non-Deterministic mode, the bgp non-deterministic-med command applies. Paths compare in the order they arrive. This
method leads to system selection of dierent best paths from a set of paths. Depending on the order they were received from the
neighbors, MED may or may not get compared between the adjacent paths. In Deterministic mode, the system compares MED. MED is
compared between the adjacent paths within an AS group because all paths in the AS group are from the same AS.
Weight and local preference
The weight attribute is local to the router and does not advertise to neighboring routers. If the router learns about more than one route to
the same destination, the route with the highest weight is preferred. The route with the highest weight is installed in the IP routing table.
The local preference — LOCAL_PREF represents the degree of preference within the entire AS. The higher the number, the greater the
preference for the route.
LOCAL_PREF is one of the criteria that determines the best path — other criteria may impact selection, see Best path selection. Assume
that LOCAL_PREF is the only attribute applied and AS 100 has two possible paths to AS 200. Although the path through Router A is
shorter, the LOCAL_PREF settings have the preferred path going through Router B and AS 300. This advertises to all routers within AS
100, causing all BGP speakers to prefer the path through Router B.
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