【CCNP ENCOR OCG】CHAPTER 1》Packet Forwarding

目录

Covers

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz

Key Topics

Paragraph Content addressable memory 17

Section Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) 27

Section Ternary Content Addressable Memory 27

Section Software CEF 29

Section SDM Templates 30

Key Terms

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF)

content addressable memory (CAM)

Forwarding Information Base (FIB)

native VLAN

process switching

Routing Information Base (RIB)

ternary content addressable memory (TCAM)

Practice Tests

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Covers

This chapter covers the following subjects:

■ Network Device Communication: This section explains how switches forward traffic

from a Layer 2 perspective and routers forward traffic from a Layer 3 perspective.

■ Forwarding Architectures: This section examines the mechanisms used in routers and

switches to forward network traffic.

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz

（下题在“书”中未见，而网站错有）

Key Topics

Paragraph Content addressable memory 17

The MAC address table resides in content addressable memory (CAM) . The CAM uses

high-speed memory that is faster than typical computer RAM due to its search techniques.

The CAM table provides a binary result for any query of 0 for true or 1 for false. The CAM

is used with other functions to analyze and forward packets very quickly.

Section Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) 27

Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) is a Cisco proprietary switching mechanism developed

to keep up with the demands of evolving network infrastructures. It has been the default

switching mechanism on most Cisco platforms that do all their packet switching using the

general-purpose CPU (software-based routers) since the 1990s, and it is the default switching

mechanism used by all Cisco platforms that use specialized application-specific integrated

circuits (ASICs) and network processing units (NPUs) for high packet throughput (hardware

based routers).

The general-purpose CPUs on software-based and hardware-based routers are similar and

perform all the same functions; the difference is that on software-based routers, the general

purpose CPU is in charge of all operations, including CEF switching (software CEF), and the

hardware-based routers do CEF switching using forwarding engines that are implemented in

specialized ASICs, ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), and NPUs (hardware CEF).

Forwarding engines provide the packet switching, forwarding, and route lookup capability to

routers.

Section Ternary Content Addressable Memory 27

A switch’s ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) allows for the matching and

evaluation of a packet on more than one field. TCAM is an extension of the CAM archi

tecture but enhanced to allow for upper-layer processing such as identifying the Layer 2/3

source/destination addresses, protocol, QoS markings, and so on. TCAM provides more flex

ibility in searching than does CAM, which is binary. A TCAM search provides three results:

0 for true, 1 false, and X for do not care, which is a ternary combination.

The TCAM entries are stored in Value, Mask, and Result (VMR) format.

Most switches implement multiple TCAM entries so that inbound/outbound security, QoS,

and Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding decisions occur all at once. TCAM operates in hardware,

providing faster processing and scalability than process switching. This allows for some fea

tures like ACLs to process at the same speed regardless of whether there are 10 entries or

500. The TCAM is not an infinite resource, and balancing memory allocations between func

tions has trade-offs.

Section Software CEF 29

Software CEF, also known as the software Forwarding Information Base (FIB) , consists

of the following components:

■ Forwarding Information Base: The FIB is built directly from the routing table and

contains the next-hop IP address for each destination in the network.  CEF uses the FIB to make IP destination prefix-based  switching decisions.

Adjacency table: The adjacency table, also known as the Adjacency Information Base

(AIB), contains the directly connected next-hop IP addresses and their corresponding

next-hop MAC addresses, as well as the egress interface’s MAC address. The adjacency

table is populated with data from the ARP table or other Layer 2 protocol tables.

Hardware CEF

NOTE Software CEF in hardware-based platforms is not used to do packet switching as in

software-based platforms; instead, it is used to program the hardware CEF.

Section SDM Templates 30

The allocation ratios between the various TCAM tables are stored and can be modified with

Switching Database Manager (SDM) templates. Multiple Cisco switches exist, and the SDM

template varies by model. SDM templates can be configured on Catalyst 9300 switches with

the global configuration command sdm prefer { vlan | advanced }. The switch must then be

restarted with the reload command.

NOTE Every switch in a switch stack must be configured with the same SDM template.

The current SDM template can viewed with the command show sdm prefer, as demonstrated in Example 1-17.

Key Terms

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

A protocol that resolves a MAC address to a specific IP address.

Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF)

A method of forwarding packets in hardware through the use of the FIB and adjacency tables. CEF is much faster than process switching.

content addressable memory (CAM)

A high-performance table used to correlate MAC addresses to switch interfaces that they are attached to.

Forwarding Information Base (FIB)

The hardware programming of a forwarding table. The FIB uses the RIB for programming.

native VLAN

A VLAN that correlates to any untagged network traffic on a trunk port.

process switching

The process of forwarding traffic by software and processing by the general CPU. It is typically slower than hardware switching.

进程交换是路由器和第 3 层交换机使用的一种交换方法，其中所有传入数据包均由主 CPU 检查，所有转发决策均由软件做出。这是一种非常慢的方法，通常由更旧的第 3 层设备使用。

Routing Information Base (RIB)

The software database of all the routes, next-hop IP addresses, and attached interfaces. Also known as a routing table.

ternary content addressable memory (TCAM)

A high-performance table or tables that can evaluate packet forwarding decisions based on policies or access lists.

Practice Tests

反思：思考“process switching”与“CEF switching”意义的不同之处。

The types of packets that generally require software handling include the following:

■ Packets sourced or destined to the router (using control traffic or routing protocols)

■ Packets that are too complex for the hardware to handle (that is, IP packets with IP

options)

■ Packets that require extra information that is not currently known (for example, unre

solved ARP entries)