Course Number

Course Number
Presentation_ID
NW’2000 Paris
Presentation_ID © 1999,
2000, Cisco
© 2000, Systems,
Cisco Inc.Inc.
Systems, 1 1
 The Integrated ISIS
routing protocol
Stefano Previdi
[email protected]

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 2

 Agenda

• Link-state protocol fundamentals

• Overview of IS-IS
• Areas and levels
• NSAPs and LSP identifiers
• CLNS routing principles
• LSP Flooding

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 3

 Agenda

• IP routing specifics
• Design issues
• New features
• Future enhancements

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 4

 Link-state protocol
fundamentals

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 5

 About link-state protocols

• In a link-state protocol, the network can

be viewed as a jigsaw puzzle
• Each jigsaw piece holds one router
• Each router creates a packet which
represents its own jigsaw piece
This packet is called a Link State PDU
(LSP)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 6

 About link-state protocols

• These packets are flooded everywhere

• Therefore each router receives all
pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
• Each routers compute SPF algorithm to
put the pieces together
Input: all jigsaw puzzle pieces (LSPs)
Output: Area or network topology tree
Shortest Path Tree
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 7
 The jigsaw puzzle

LSP for router-B

LSP for router-A
to A
to B
to E
to D
to C to E

to A to B
to A LSP for routerE to B

to D to C

LSP for router-D

LSP for router-C
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 8
 All routers have same view

• All routers exchange all LSPs

via a reliable flooding mechanism
• All routers store all LSPs in a so-
called link-state database (LSPDB)
separate from the routing table (RIB)
all routers should have exactly the
same LSPDB, but different RIBs
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 9
 What to do with LSPs ?

• Each router ‘composes the jigsaw

puzzle’ by executing Dijkstra’s
Shortest Path First algorithm (SPF)
the topology is calculated as a Shortest
Path Tree (SPT), with itself as root
each router computes a different SPT
• From the SPT the RIBs are calculated
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 10
 All routers have same LSPDB
RouterA’s LSPDB
lspB
lspA RouterB’s LSPDB
lspA lspB
lspE RouterE’s LSPDB
lspD lspB
lspC lspA lspE
lspD
lspC
lspE
lspD
lspC
lspA lspB lspB
lspA

lspE lspE
lspD lspD
lspC lspC
RouterC’s LSPDB RouterD’s LSPDB
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 11
 Brief overview of IS-IS

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 12

 What is IS-IS ?

• IS stands for Intermediate System

• IS is “OSI speak” for router
• IS-IS is the Intermediate System to
Intermediate System intra-domain
routing protocol
• IS-IS was defined in 1992 in the
ISO/IEC recommendation 10589

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 13

 IS-IS for IP routing

• IS-IS was designed for OSI routing

• IS-IS is easily extendable
• Extensions for IP routing in rfc1195
• Also called “Integrated IS-IS”or “Dual
IS-IS”
• Easy to extend for other protocols
mainly IPv6

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 14

 Only 4 types of IS-IS packets
• IS-IS Hello packet (IIH)
• Link State Packet (LSP)
• Partial Sequence Number Packet
(PSNP)
• Complete Sequence Number Packet
(CSNP)
• Packets are sometimes called Protocol
Data Units (PDU in OSI)
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 15
 IS-IS Hello PDUs

• Also called IIHs

• Used for maintaining adjacencies
• Different on p2p links and LANs
• Different from ISHs and ESHs (ESIS)
• IIHs are padded to full MTU size

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 16

 Link State PDUs

• Called LSPs
• Contains all info about one router
adjacencies, connected IP prefixes, OSI
endsystems, area addresses, etc.
• One LSP per router (plus fragments)
• One LSP per LAN network

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 17

 Sequence Number PDUs

• Partial (PSNP) and Complete (CSNP)

• Used when flooding the LSPDB
• PSNPs are like ACKs on p2p links
• CSNPs are used for LSPDB
synchronization over LANs
• CSNP are also used to sync LSPDB
over new p2p adjacencies

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 18

 Pseudonodes and network LSAs

• For SPF, the whole network must

look like a collection of nodes and
point-to-point links
Multi-access networks are different
• Assume a virtual node for the LAN
this virtual node is called pseudonode. It
is not a real router, but just an extra LSP
in the LSPDB

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 19

 A pseudonode on a LAN

Physical view Logical view

DIS
DIS

LAN

Pseudonode

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 20

 Who creates the pseudonode
• Created by Designated Router (DIS)
• Not by Backup Designated Router. In
IS-IS there even is no BDR
• The DIS reports all LAN neighbors in
the pseudonode LSP
With metric 0
• All LAN routers report connectivity to
the pseudonode in their LSPs
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 21
 Identifying nodes

• In IS-IS SystemIDs are 6 bytes. Nodes

are identified by 7 bytes.
A normal node (non-pseudonode) is
identified by 6 bytes systemID plus a
zero
A pseudonode is identified by the
systemID of the DIS, plus 1 byte from the
circuitID of the interface of the DIS

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 22

 Areas and levels

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 23

 Hierarchy

• IS-IS has 2 layers of hierarchy

the backbone is called level-2
areas are called level-1
• Same algorithms apply for L1 and L2
• A router can take part in L1 and L2
inter-area routing (or inter-level routing)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 24

 Level-1 Routers

• Neighbors only in the same area

• L1 has information about own area
• L1-only routers look at the attached-
bit in L1 LSPs to find the closest
L1L2 router
• L1-only routers install a default route
to the closest L1L2 router in the area

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 25

 Level-2 routers

• May have neighbors in other areas

• L2 has information about L2 topology
• L2 has information what L1
destinations are reachable and how
to reach them via the L2 topology
• L2 routers often do also L1 routing
so called L1L2 routers

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 26

 Adjacency levels

L1-Adjacency L2-Adjacency

Router with adjacencies within

the same area.

However, needs to have a L2

database as well since it is a transit
node

Therefore L1L2 adjacency is required

L2-Adjacency
L2-Adjacency

L1L2 L1L2
Adjacency Adjacency

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 27

Level-1, Level-2 & Level-1-2 Routers
• Backbone MUST BE L2 contiguous
L1-only

L2-only

L1-L2

L1-only

L1-only

L1-L2
L1-L2

L1-only
This router has to behave as level-2
as well in order to guarantee backbone
L1-L2 continuity

L1-only

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 28

Level-1, Level-2 & Level-1-2 Routers
• Backbone MUST BE L2 contiguous
L1-only

L2-only

L1-L2

L1-only

L1-L2

L1-L2
L1-L2

L1-only
This router has to behave as level-2
as well in order to guarantee backbone
L1-L2 continuity

L1-only

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 29

 NSAPs and LSPids

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 30

 NSAPs and Addressing

• Network Service Access Point

• The NSAP is the network layer
address for CLNS packets
• One NSAP per box, not per interface
• SNPA means SubNetwork Point of
Attachment, which is the layer2 or
MAC address

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 31

 How do I read an NSAP ?

• An NSAP consists of 3 parts

area-address, systemID and n-selector

• Total length between 8 and 20 bytes

example: 49.0001.0000.0000.0007.00
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 32
 NETs versus NSAPs

• A NET is an NSAP with n-selector 0

• A NET implies the routing layer of the
IS itself (no transport layer)
• On routers we always deal with NETs
We haven’t implemented TP4 (or another
transport layer)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 33

 Do I need an NSAP if I want to use
IS-IS for IP routing ?

• Yes, still needed for IP routing only

• Area address is like OSPF area nr
• SystemID is like an OSPF routerID
LSP identifier is derived from systemID

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 34

 Creating unique systemIDs

• SystemID is 6 bytes
• Start numbering 1, 2, 3, 4 …. etc
• Convert your loopback IP address
192.31.231.16 -> 192.031.231.016 ->
systemID 1920.3123.1016

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 35

 Creating area addresses

• If you do CLNS routing, request an

official NSAP prefix
• If you do just IP routing, use AFI 49
• AFI 49 denotes private address space
like network 10.0.0.0 in IP
• Just number your areas 49.0001…
49.0002…., 49.0003,… etc

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 36

 LSP Identifier

• LSP identifier consists of 3 parts

• Source ID
SystemID of router or DIS (if pseudonode)
• Pseudonode ID
Router LSP = zero, Pseudonode LSP = non-zero
• LSP number
Fragmentation number

• Example: 00c0.0040.1234.02-00
SystemID PN-ID Frag-Nr

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 37

 CLNS routing principles

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 38

 OSI protocol family

• CLNS is datagram delivery protocol

like bare IP service
actually called CLNP
• ESIS is like ARP, ICMP, HSRP, IRDP
between routers and hosts
• IS-IS and ISO-IGRP are the IGPs

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 39

 OSI protocol family

• IS-IS is not encapsulated in CLNS

and not encapsulated in IP (yet)
• Encapsulated directly in layer2
• Protocol family is OSI
usually values like 0xFE or 0xFEFE
(ppp uses 0x0023 and 0x8023)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 40

 Level-1 routing

• L1-only routers know only topology

of their own area (including all ISs
and ESs in the area)
• Traffic to other areas is sent via the
closest L2 IS
• L1L2 ISs set the “attached-bit” in
their L1 LSP
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 41
 Area addresses

• An area address is like a summary

• All L1 ISs and ESs in an area must
have NSAPs that start with the same
area-address
• L1L2 routers advertise their area-
addresses to L2 routers in other
areas
• Multiple area-adresses possible

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 42

 Level-2 Routing

• L2 routers know about other areas

L2 area addresses and L2 routers
• When doing OSI routing, the L2 ISs
must know their own area. Therefore
never use L2-only on OSI routers
L2-only is possible when doing just IP

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 43

 Level-2 Routing

• Transit traffic requires routers inside

the area to know about other areas
routers in transit paths must be L1L2
routers to have the full L2 LSDB
similar to pervasive BGP requirement
• L2 routers must be contiguous

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 44

 The Backbone
• A router can’t tell whether it is a transit
node
Therefore the cisco default is to be L1L2
This will make the backbone larger then
necessary
So always configure L1-only or L2-only
when possible
• L1L2 in one area is less scalable
Especially with ISIS for IP
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 45
 Can an IS determine its level ?
“I’m in area 2 and ALL
Area 1 my neighbors are in the
same area. I must be a Area 3
L1-only router ?”

Area 2 Area 4
!! NO !!
Rtr C must have a full L2 LSDB
to route between areas 1, 3 and
4. Remember, the backbone
must be contiguous.

ISIS router cannot determine if they need to be L1 or L1L2

Therefore By default all cisco routers will behave as L1L2
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 46
 The Attached bit
L1-LSDB L1-LSDB
rtrA.00-00 ATT-bit rtrD.00-00 ATT-bit
L2-LSDB
rtrB.00-00 rtrE.00-00
rtr A rtrA.00-00
rtrC.00-00 rtrF.00-00
rtrD.00-00
rtr D

Area 2
Area 1

• L1L2 routers set the ATT bit in their L1 LSP

• L1 routers use ATT bit found in L1-LSDB as
possible area exit point
ISIS for IP: level-1 router will install a 0.0.0.0/0 route
towards the L1L2 with ATT-bit set
• Shortest metric to the L1L2 who sets the ATT
bit wins
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 47
 LSP flooding

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 48

 Why do we need flooding

• All routers generate an LSP

• All LSPs need to be flooded to all
routers in the network
if LSPDB is not synchronised, routing
loops or blackholes might occur
• IS-IS’ two components are the SPF
computation and reliable flooding

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 49

 What triggers a new LSP ?

• When something changes …

Adjacency came up or went down
Interface up/down (connected IP prefix !)
Redistributed IP routes change
Inter-area IP routes change
An interface is assigned a new metric
Most other configuration changes
Periodic refresh
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 50
 What to do with a new LSP ?

• Create new LSP, install in your own

LSPDB and mark it for flooding
• Send the new LSP to all neighbors
• Neigbors flood the LSP further

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 51

 Basic flooding rules

• When receiving an LSP, compare

with old version of LSP in LSPDB
• If newer:
install it in the LSPDB
Acknowledge the LSP with a PSNP
Flood to all other neighbors
Check if need to run SPF

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 52

 Basic flooding rules

• If same age:
Acknowledge the LSP with a PSNP

• If older:
Acknowledge the LSP with a PSNP
Send our version of the same LSP
Wait for PSNP

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 53

 Sequence number

• Each LSP (and LSP fragment) has its

own sequence number
• When router boots, set seqnr to one
• When there is a change, the seqnr is
incremented, a new version of the
LSP is generated with the new seqnr
• Higher seqnr means newer LSP

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 54

 Remaining lifetime

• Used to age out old LSPs

• Periodic refresh needed to keep
stable LSPs valid
• IS-IS counts down from 1200 sec to 0
we allows to start at 65535 sec (18.7h)
• When lifetime expires, the LSP is
purged from the network
Header with lifetime = 0 is flooded
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 55
 Flooding on a P2P Link
LSP
id=x seqnr=22

RouterA
Receives LSP
id=x seqNr=22 RouterB
It’s new. Put it in
the LSPDB
LSP
Now flood it: id=x seqnr=22
Set SRM bit. Received it. Local
Send over p2p. copy has seqNr = 21.
So the received one is
newer. Install it in LSDB.
Received ack PSNP Acknowledge it. Maybe
Clear SRMbit id=x seqnr=22 flood further.
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 56
 The Designated Router
• DIS is like the DR in OSPF
• DIS is only on LANs, not on p2p
• DIS has two tasks
create/update pseudonode LSP
conduct flooding over the LAN
• DIS sends persiodic CSNPs
LSPid, SeqNr, Checksum, Lifetime of all
LSPs present in the LSPDB
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 57
 The Designated IS

• No Backup DIS in ISIS

not necessary, no LSPDB resync
• DIS is elected by priority and MAC
actually is “self-elected”
• LAN circuitID shows who is DIS
use show clns interface

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 58

 Flooding on a LAN
Rtr-A
DIS
Received new LSP
LAN id=x seqNr=22
Install in LSPDB.
LSP Flood the LSP.
!!! Problem !!! LSP
Dropped LSP id=x seqNr=22

Local copies of LSP-y and CSNP

LSP-z are up-to-date but id=y seqnr=... Periodic CSNP
local copy of LSP-x is older. id=x seqNr=22 every 10 secs
Request latest LSP-x via id=z ...
PSNP
PSNP
id=x seqNr=21 Neighbor has an
old LSP, better
resend him latest
Got it. Install and LSP
run SPF id=x seqNr=22
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 59
 IP routing specifics

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 60

 L1 advertised into L2

• All L1L2 routers advertise all the IP

prefixes they learn via L1 into L2
• Only advertise routes you use
(inter-level routing goes via the RIB)
• Summarization possible
At L1->L2 or when redistributing

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 61

 L1 advertised into L2

• Level-1 preferred over Level-2

In case of SAME routes (same prefix and
same mask)
• Internal equal to external route type
(TLV 128 versus TVL 130)
• Internal over external metric-type

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 62

 ISIS routing Levels

L1 L1L2
2. Level-1 LSP with 3. Level-2 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16 IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16
IP prefix: 10.10.0.0/16

L1
2. Level-1 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.10.0.0/16 1. Level-1 LSP with
Attached-bit (used
L1L2 as a default route by
all level-1routers

L1

Routers within an area do not

have any routing information L1
about prefixes originated outside
the area. Default routing (ATT-bit
or explicit 0.0.0.0/0) is used to reach
destinations outside the area.

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 63

 ISIS routing Levels
3. Level-2 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16

L2 0. Level-1 LSP with

3. Level-2 LSP with L2
ATT bit set
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16
L1
L1L2

2. Level-2 LSP with

IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16 2. Level-2 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16

L1L2
0. Level-1 LSP with 0. Level-1 LSP with L1L2
ATT bit set ATT bit set

4. At this point the prefix

L1 10.1.0.0/16 will NOT be inserted
1. Level-1 LSP with L1 in the L1 LSP (no route leaking
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16 by default)

2. At this point prefix

10.1.0.0/16 is
will be
inserted in L2 LSP

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 64

 Route Leaking

• New ISIS feature/capability described in

draft-ietf-isis-domain-wide
• Allows L1L2 routers to insert in their L1
LSP IP prefixes learned from L2
database if also present in the routing
table
• ISIS areas are not stubby anymore

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 65

 Route Leaking
1. Level-1 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.14.0.0/16
L1L2
L1L2
L1
L1L2

2. Level-2 LSP with

IP prefix: 10.14.0.0/16

L1L2 L1L2
3. Level-1 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.14.0.0/16
Up/Down-bit set

L1
L1

3. At this point prefix

4. At this point prefix 10.14.0.0/16 will be inserted
10.14.0.0/16 will NOT be in L1 LSP since route leaking
inserted in L2 LSP since is configured AND the prefix is
it has the Down-bit set present in the routing table as
a L2 route

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 66

 Route Leaking
3. Level-2 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16
L1L2
L1L2
4. Level-2 LSP with L1
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16
L1L2
3. Level-1 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16
2. Level-2 LSP with Up/Down-Bit set
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16 2. Level-2 LSP with
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16

L1L2 L1L2

5. At this point the prefix

10.1.0.0/16 will NOT be inserted
in the L1 LSP since a L1 route is
preferred in the routing table
L1
1. Level-1 LSP with L1
IP prefix: 10.1.0.0/16

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 67

 Route Leaking

• For IP only
• Prefixes MUST be present in the
routing table as ISIS level-2 routes
Otherwise no leaking occurs
Same criteria than L1 to L2
Inter-area routing is done through the
routing table

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 68

 Route Leaking

• Solution for several issues:

• optimal inter-area routing
• BGP shortest path to AS exit point
• MPLS-VPN (PEs loopback reachability)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 69

 Route Leaking

• When leaking routes from L2 backbone

into L1 areas a loop protection
mechanism need to be used in order to
prevent leaked routes to be re-injected
into the backbone

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 70

 Route Leaking

• UP/Down bit
Extended IP Reachability TLV (135) contains Up/Down
bit
Described in draft-ietf-isis-traffic

• UP/Down bit is set each time a prefix is

leaked into a lower level
• Prefixes with Up/Down bit set are
NEVER propagated to a upper level

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 71

 Route Leaking

• Route leaking works also with

IP Internal Reachability Information (TLV 128)
IP External Reachability Information (TLV 130)
Also known as: Old-style or Narrow-metric TLVs

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 72

 Route Leaking

• TVLs 128 and 130 have a metric field

that consists of 4 TOS metrics
The first metric, the so-called "default metric", has the
high-order bit reserved (bit 8) Routers must set this bit
to zero on transmission, and ignore it on receipt

• The high-order bit in the default metric

field in TLVs 128 and 130 becomes the
Up/Down bit

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 73

 Route Leaking

• Recommendation:
use wide Metric TLV (TLV 135)
• Configured with:
Router isis
metric-style wide

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 74

 Route Leaking
• Route leaking is implemented in both
12.0S and 12.1
Cisco IOS 12.0S command
advertise ip L2-into-L1 <100-199>

Cisco IOS 12.1 command

redistribute isis ip level-2 into level-1 distribute-list <100-199>

• Both commands are supported

• 12.0S command will be converted into
12.1 syntax
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 75
 Summarization is possible …..

• From L1 areas into the L2 backbone,

• From L2 leaking down into L1 areas,
• When redistributing into L2 or L1
router isis
summary address 192.1.0.0 255.255.0.0

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 76

 Partial Route Calculation

• Recompute all IP routes in a LSP

Only implemented for IP
• Done when SPT topology doesn’t
change
IP prefix added, removed or metric change
Inter-area, externals and passive interfaces

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 77

 ISIS router configuration

router isis
net 49.0001.0000.0000.000a.00
log-adjacency-changes
is-type level-2-only
passive-interface loopback0

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 78

 ISIS interface configuration

interface POS2/0
ip unnumbered loopback0
ip router isis
clns router isis
isis circuit-type level-2

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 79

 Network design issues

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 80

 System-ID addressing

• System-ID is 6 bytes
• Convert your loopback IP addresses
into CLNS System-Ids
• Or simply use:
0000.0000.0001
0000.0000.0002
0000.0000.0003
...

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 81

 Area addresses
• If PUBLIC CLNS network, request an
official NSAP prefix
• Otherwise, use AFI 49
Especially for IP networks
• AFI 49 is CLNS private address space
like network 10.0.0.0 in IP
• Areas addresses:
49.0001…, 49.0002…., 49.0003,… etc
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 82
 Areas and System-IDs
Area 49.0002 Area 49.0003

Loopback: 141.253.10.1 Loopback: 141.253.10.4

System-ID: 1412.5301.0001 System-ID: 1412.5301.0004
NET: 49.0002.1412.5301.0001 NET: 49.0003.1412.5301.0004

Loopback: 141.253.10.2 Loopback: 141.253.10.3

System-ID: 1412.5301.0002 Area 49.0001 System-ID: 1412.5301.0003
NET: 49.0001.1412.5301.0002 NET: 49.0001.1412.5301.0003

• System-Ids can easely be derived

from Loopback addresses
141.253.10.4 141.253.010.004 1412.5301.0004

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 83

 Areas and System-IDs
Area 49.0002 Area 49.0003

Loopback: 141.253.10.1 Loopback: 141.253.10.4

System-ID: 0000.0000.0001 System-ID: 0000.0000.0004
NET: 49.0002.0000.0000.0001 NET: 49.0001.0000.0000.0004.00

Loopback: 141.253.10.2 Loopback: 141.253.10.3

System-ID: 0000.0000.0002 Area 49.0001 System-ID: 0000.0000.0003
NET: 49.0001.0000.0000.0002.00 NET: 49.0001.0000.0000.0003.00

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 84

 Link-State protocols main
components

• SPF computation
no big deal in most networks
forwarding continues during SPF
• LSP flooding
number of neighbors
speed of links, nr of buffers
size of the network
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 85
 LSP flooding throttling

• ISO 10589 states LSP flooding on a

LAN should be limited to 30 LSPs/sec
33 msec gap between consecutive LSPs
• IOS throttles over both LAN and p2p
• 30 LSP/sec,1492 byte/LSP = 360 Kbps
slow speed links might get congested
use “lsp-interval” command

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 86

 LSP flooding throttling

• Several interface configuration

commands
isis lsp-interval 33
delay (msecs) between LSP transmissions (flooding)

isis retransmit-interval 5
delay between retransmissions of the same LSP

isis retransmit-throttle-interval 100

delay between retransmitted LSPs

isis mesh-group blocked

Block LSP flooding on this interface
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 87
 LSP flooding over LANs
• LAN flooding usually doesn’t encounter
any problem
• No retransmission over LANs
• No ACKs on LANs
DIS only sends periodic CSNPs
• Reduce CSNP timer for faster
convergence over a LAN
int ethernet 1/0
isis csnp-interval <0-65535>
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 88
 Advertising parallel p2p
adjacencies only once

• When building an LSP all adjacencies

are inserted from the adjacency DB
• Parallel p2p adjacencies may be
advertised in the LSP more then once
• This does not matter for SPF
• Optimization: advertise parallel p2p
adjacencies only once

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 89

 Advertising parallel p2p
adjacencies only once

• Several scaling advantages

LSPs will be smaller
SPF calculations will be more efficient
Flapping of one of a set of parallel links
will be invisible to the rest of the network

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 90

 Wider Metric Support

• Default metric used is cost (default is

set to 10 on all interfaces)
• The interface metric was limited to 6
bits wide (range 0 to 63)
• The total path metric was limited to
10 bits wide (maximum of 1023)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 91

 Wider Metric Support

• The interface metric was increased to

24 bits wide (range 0 to 16777215)
• The total path metric was increased
to 4261412864 (32-bits) from 1023
• Can configure the old or new metrics
• Default is old style metrics

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 92

 Wider Metric Support

• Configuration:
Rtr-A(config)#router isis
Rtr-A(config-router)#metric-style ?
narrow Use old style of TLVs with narrow metric
wide Use new style of TLVs to carry wider metric

Rtr-A(config-router)#metric-style wide ?
level-1 Level-1 only
level-1-2 Level-1-2
level-2 Level-2 only

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 93

 Design guidelines
LSP Generation

• LSP generation (lsp-gen-interval )

Control the “frequency” of LSP
generation
Prevent from flapping links causing a lot
of LSPs to be flooded throughout the
network

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 94

 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation

• IS-IS throttles it main events

SPF/PRC computation, LSP generation
• Throttling slows down convergence
• Not throttling can cause melt-downs
• Find a compromise...

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 95

 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation
• Initial wait before SPF/PRC or LSP
generation
50 msec for LSP gen, 5.5 sec for SPF
• And a configurable minimum interval
between consecutive events
By default is
5 seconds for LSP generation
10 seconds for SPF calculation

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 96

 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation

• The scope is to react fast to the first

events but ,under constant churn, slow
down to avoid to collapse

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 97

 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation

• Extended syntax
spf-interval <a> [<b> <c>]
<a> seconds between SPF runs (seconds)
<b> milliseconds between first trigger and SPF
<c> milliseconds between first and second SPF

• Same syntax for

prc-interval
lsp-gen-interval

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 98

 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation
• Example: spf-interval 10 100 1000
(a) (b) (c)

• We decide to run an SPF

Wait 100 msecs, then run SPF (b=100)
Wait at least 1 second before running a
second SPF if needed (c = 1000)
If we need to run a 3rd SPF, right after,
wait at least 2 seconds (c = 2c)

Wait at least 4 sec before next SPF, then 8 sec,

then 10 sec, 10 sec, … (c= MIN(2c, a))
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 99
 Design guidelines
SPF, PRC and LSP generation

• When the network calms down, and

there were no triggers for 2 times the
minimum interval (20 sec in this
example), go back to fast behaviour
(100 ms initial wait)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 100

 Design guidelines
SPF and PRC
• SPF timers (spf-interval & prc-interval)
Control the “frequency” of SPF runs
Prevent from collapsing the router if SPF
has to be run constantly
Backoff can be configured however…
danger !!!
• SPF Backoff is **NOT** a dampening
mechanism

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 101

 Design guidelines
Lifetime
• Lifetime and refresh interval
• Set lifetime to its maximum value
Router isis
max-lsp-lifetime 65535
lsp-reflresh-interval 65400
• Allow LSP refresh only after more
than 18 hours
• Less flooding more stability
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 102
 Design guidelines
Hello padding
• IIHs are padded to full MTU size
• Benefit is early detection of problems
transmission problems with large frames
MTU mismatch
• On high speed interfaces MTU is 4K
or higher and could be strain on huge
buffers
• On low speed interfaces large hellos
waste bandwidth
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 103
 Design guidelines
Hello padding

• Large hello packets waste bandwidth

• Can now be suppressed selectively
All interfaces
Per interface
no hello padding

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 104

 Design guidelines
Default routing

• ISIS uses the Attached-bit to discover

the exit point of an area
• ATT bit is set into the L1 LSP by the
router who is also a L2 router
• All L1 routers will use that L2 router
as default exit point for the area

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 105

 Design guidelines
Default routing

• ATT may not be optimal for IP

networks
• Use explicit IP default route
router isis
default-information originate
• IP default route ALWAYS preferred
over the ATT bit

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 106

 Design guidelines
Redistribution
• The good practice is……to avoid it !
• Otherwise can happen in any type of router
(L1 or L2 or L1L2)
• Summarisation possible in the redistributing
router
• Summarisation always possible in the L1L2
router for routes redistributed by another L1
router
• Different from OSPF

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 107

 Route Leaking

• New feature to enable redistributing level-2 IP

routes into level-1 areas
Allow optimal area routing
IP only feature (CLNS still uses stub)
• Enables level-1-only routers to pick the best
path to exit the area
• Enables shortest-exit and MED for BGP
• Enables MPLS-VPN (PE reachability) between
areas
• Redistribution is controlled via distribute-lists
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 108
 Route Leaking

• Can use the new or old style metrics

when leaking routes
Better use the new wider metrics to get
real benefit from leaking routes into L1
Otherwise all backbone routes may be
seen as advertised by L1L2 routers with
a metric of 63 !
Route leaking benefit is lost….
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 109
 Design guidelines
Summarisation
• Summarisation
• Used whith area routing
• Used from level-1 area to level-2
backbone
• Used from level-2 backbone to level-1
area when using route leaking
• Always a good practice

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 110

 Design guidelines
Management & troubleshooting
• Keep trace of
SPF calculations
Adjacencies states
• Show command
show isis spf-log
• Configuration command
log-adjacency-changes
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 111
 Design guidelines
Overload-bit

• 10589 defines for each LSP a special

bit called the LSPDB Overload Bit
• While having problems, a router
could set the OL bit, and other
routers would route around it
• Connected IP prefixes still reachable
This may change in the future

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 112

 Design guidelines
Overload-bit

• With IS-IS you can manually set the

overload bit in the router’s LSP
• This router will therefore never be
used for transit during the path
calculation, but it is still reachable
• Use for routers in the lab, routers
aggregating management PVCs, etc

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 113

 Design guidelines
Overload-bit
R1 R2

When R1 computes SPT, he will find R5

that R5 LSP has Overload-bit set. R5-LSP Overload-bit R3
Therefore R5 cannot be used as transit Neighbors: R1, R4
node and shortest path to R4 is:
R1->R2->R3->R4

• Why/When use Overload-Bit ? R4

When the router is not ready to forward

traffic for ALL destinations
Typically when ISIS is up but BGP (or even MPLS) not yet
When the router has other functions (Network Management)

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 114

 Design guidelines
Overload-bit
• BGP will typically converge much
slower than the IGP (a few minutes)
• During this time, other routers in the
AS will use this new router for transit
• But if the new router does not have
all BGP routes yet, it will drop traffic
• New router should first converge
BGP before carrying traffic
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 115
 Design guidelines
Overload-bit

• IS-IS can set the OL bit after each

reboot, and allow BGP to converge
before it advertises itself as transit by
unsetting the OL bit
• Network admin needs to specify how
long IS-IS should wait for BGP to
converge
typically 2 to 5 minutes
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 116
 Design guidelines
Overload-bit

• BGP can tell IS-IS to unset the

Overload-bit immediately
• Default BGP update delay is 2 min
• When BGP never informs ISIS, the
Overload-bit will be cleared after 10
minutes

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 117

 Design guidelines
Overload-bit

router isis
set-overload-bit
set-overload-bit on-startup <sec>
set-overload-bit on-startup wait-for-bgp
router bgp 100
bgp update-delay <sec>

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 118

 Design guidelines
Overload-bit
• Overload-bit on-startup
recommended in MPLS networks
• During boot-up a router may have all
IGP routes but not all labels
• During this time it’s better not to use
the router as a transit point
router isis
set-overload-bit on-startup 120

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 119

 New features

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 120

 Implementation

• Partial Route Calculation

• FastPSNP
• PRC on MPLS TE tunnel flap
• Parallal p2p adjacencies

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 121

 Dynamic hostname to systemID
resolution

• IS-IS routers and LSPs identified by a

6 byte systemID, taken from NSAP
• Before 12.0(5)S and 12.0(5)T:
• Name to NSAP mappings had to be
manually configured:
Rtr-A(config)#clns host <name> <nsap>

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 122

 Dynamic hostname to systemID
resolution
• New feature to automatically learn
router names
• Symbolic name is put inside the LSP
• This feature is ON by default
can be disabled via:
router isis
no dynamic-hostname

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 123

 Multi-Area Support
• Allows multiple IS-IS processes to be
configured on a single router
• Each process serves a different area
• One of the processes will be L1L2 to
advertise all area addresses from all
processes into L2
• Maximum number of configurable IS-
IS processes on a single router is 29

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 124

 Traffic Engineering Support

• Support for MPLS-TE:

Traffic Engineering with Multi Protocol
Label Switching
• IS-IS allows MPLS-TE to flood
resource, policy and reservation
information about links inside LSPs
• New information carried in sub-TLVs

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 125

 Faster link failure detection

• Holdtime is the number of seconds a

neighbor must maintain an adjacency
when it does not receive hellos
• Holdtime is the hello-interval
multiplied by the hello-multiplier
• The holdtime is advertised inside IIHs
no need for matching configurations
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 126
 Faster holdtime

• Hold-time can be set to 1 second

Interface POS2/0
isis hello-interval minimal
• By default hello-multiplier is 3
Hello packets sent every 333 msecs

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 127

 Fast Hellos

• Advantages
reduced link failure detection time
• Disadvantages
increased BW/buffer/CPU usage can
cause missed hellos. potential increased
adjacency flapping can cause instability
use no isis hello padding feature to
reduce BW and buffer usage
interface Pos 2/0
no isis hello padding
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 128
 Fast Hellos

• Configuration:
Interface configuration mode:
Rtr-A(config)#int POS2/0
Rtr-A(config-if)#isis hello-interval minimal
Rtr-A(config-if)#isis hello-multiplier 5

• Advertised holdtime will now be 1

second, hello-interval will be 200 ms

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 129

 Future enhancements

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 130

 Future Enhancements

• Route TAGS
Possible new sub-TLV for tagging
Similar to BGP communities
Allows flexible filtering at area
boundaries

NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 131

 Potential enhancements

• Flooding optimization over parallel

adjacencies
• Extensions for DPT (SRP)
• ISIS for IPv6
• Incremental SPF ?
• More level hierarchy ?
NW’2000 Paris © 2000, Cisco Systems, Inc. 132
 The Integrated ISIS
routing protocol
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