Equal Cost Multipath

Table 1. Equal Cost Multiple Path for IPv4 product support

Feature

Product

Release introduced

Equal Cost Multiple Path (ECMP) for IPv4

5320 Series

Fabric Engine 8.6

Only 5320-48P-8XE and 5320-48T-8XE support more than one VRF with IP configuration.

5420 Series

VOSS 8.4

5520 Series

VOSS 8.2.5

5720 Series

Fabric Engine 8.7

7520 Series

Fabric Engine 8.10

7720 Series

Fabric Engine 8.10

VSP 4900 Series

VOSS 8.1

VSP 7400 Series

VOSS 8.0

With Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP), the switch can determine up to eight equal-cost paths to the same destination prefix. You can use multiple paths for load sharing of traffic. These multiple paths provide faster convergence to other active paths in case of network failure. By maximizing load sharing among equal-cost paths, you can use links between routers more efficiently when sending IP traffic. Equal Cost Multipath is formed using routes from the same source or protocol.

All IP ECMP routes that share the same combination of ECMP next hops consume the same ECMP group resource. The following list illustrates how shared next hops affect resource consumption:

ECMP is supported on both the Global Routing Table (GRT) and Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF).

The ECMP feature supports and complements the following protocols and route types:

ECMP Pathlist

Use the ECMP Pathlist feature to control how many equal-cost paths to add to the routing manager for the same destination.