#CiscoLive

IS-IS Deployment in Modern

Networks
Brad Edgeworth, SD-WAN Technical Solutions Architect
CCIE #31574
@BradEdgeworth
BRKENT-2007

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 • IS-IS Foundation
• IS-IS Configuration
• IS-IS Topology Constructs
• How a Router Builds
an IS-IS Topology

Agenda • Route Advertisements and

Metrics
• IPv6 Support
• Area Design

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IS-IS Trivia Question

• How do you make the traffic between R1 and R4, take R5?
• How do you make the traffic between R2 and R3, take the direct
link?

R5
R5

R1
R1 R2
R2 R3
R3 R4
R4

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IS-IS Foundation
What is IS-IS?
Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) Overview

• IS-IS is a link-state routing protocol;

• Offer Fast convergence
• Excellent scalability
• Flexibility in terms of tuning

• Adopted and published by International Organization for

Standardization (ISO)… The guys who gave us the OSI model
• Easily extensible with Type/Length/Value (TLV) extensions;
• IPv6 Address Family support (RFC 2308)
• Multi-Topology support (RFC 5120)
• MPLS Traffic Engineering (RFC 3316)

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Hierarchy Levels
• IS-IS presently has a two-layer hierarchy
• The backbone (level 2)
• Non-backbone areas (level 1)

Routers, not interfaces are associated to an area

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5

Area Area Area

49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Hierarchy Levels
• IS-IS presently has a two-layer hierarchy
• The backbone (level 2)
• Formed between areas
• Formed within an area

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Hierarchy Levels
• IS-IS presently has a two-layer hierarchy
• The backbone (level 2)
• Non-backbone areas (level 1)
• Formed within an area

L1 Adjacency L1 Adjacency

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Hierarchy Levels (Routers)
A router can be a:
• L1 only router (i.e. R1 & R5)
• L2 only router (i.e. R3)
• L1-L2 routers (i.e. R2 & R4)

L1 Adjacency L1 Adjacency

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R3 R5
R5
R2 R4
L1
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 The Backbone
• Connects Areas
• Responsible for taking routes from L1 routes and advertising to
other domains
• Can cross multiple areas

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R3 R5
R2 R4
L1
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area Area Area
49.0001 49.0002 49.0003 49.0004 49.0005

Backbone Backbone

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IS-IS Communication
Based on OSI Layer 2 addresses (MAC addresses for Ethernet).
Name Destination MAC Address
All L1 IS Devices 0180.c200.0014
All L2 IS Devices 0180.c200.0015
All IS Devices 0900.2b00.0005

• Does not work on IP based tunnels

• Does work on GRE tunnels
• Does not work on DMVPN tunnels

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IS-IS Packet Types

IS-IS has three types of PDUs (packets)

• IS-IS Hello (IIH) Packets – Used to establish/monitor neighbors
• Link State Packets (LSPs) – used to build a topology and share
routes
• Sequence Number Packets (SNPs) – used to synchronize LSPs

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Type, Length, Value (TLV) Tuples
• This is the true magic of IS-IS. Provides the ability to support
multiple protocols in the same architecture.
• TLVs provide variable modules, and support nesting.
• A TLV is assigned a numerical value which directly correlates to a
function.
• When a router receives an IS PDU and detects an unrecognizable
TLV, it just skips the TLV and continues to the next TLV in that
packet.
• TLVs are not modified in transit.

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IS-IS Packet Structure
IIS-IS Hello (IIH), LSPs, SNPs all contain these fields in every packet:
• Protocol Descriptor – 0x83 for IS-IS
• PDU Length
• PDU Type – Defines if it is an IIH, LSP, or SNP
• Reserved – Identifies the level of a packet (L1 or L2)
• Max Areas – Maximum number of areas a router will support

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IS-IS LSP Structure

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 Common LSP TLVs
TLV # Function
1 List of area addresses on router
2 List of IS Neighbors (Narrow Metrics)
10 Authentication
22 Extended IS Neighbors (Wide Metrics)
128 IP network and metric from advertising router (Narrow Metrics)
130 External networks and metrics when redistributed
132 IP Addresses on transmitting interface (includes secondary interfaces) (Narrow Metrics)
135 IP Addresses on transmitting interface (includes secondary interfaces) (Wide Metrics)
137 Router hostname (Allows correlation of name to System ID
232 IPv6 Interface Address
236 IPv6 Reachability Information
237 Multi Topology Reachable IPv6 Prefix

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IS-IS Interfaces

There are two types of interface in IS-IS:

• Broadcast – This is the default. Allows for more than one neighbor
to connect on this medium. Requires the election of a pseudonode
called a Designated Intermediate System (DIS)
• Point-to-Point – Used to reduce some of the overhead
mechanisms with broadcasts networks if only 2 devices exist on a
segment.

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 IS-IS Addressing
Anatomy of a NET Address

• Each IS-IS router is identified with a Network Entity Title (NET)

Variable in
Inter-Domain Part (IDP) Domain Specific Part (DSP) Length

Authority and Format Initial Domain

HO-DSP ID Selector (SEL)
Identifier (AFI) Identifier

Area Address ID Selector (SEL)

1-13 bytes 6 bytes 1 byte

Used for L2 Routing Used for L1 Routing

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 IS-IS Addressing
Reading the NET Address

• Start from Right work your way back:

• Final 8 bits – zero
• Next 48 bits – router identifiter
• Next 16 bits – area
• First 8 bits – pick a number (49 is the private AFI family)

Authority and Format Initial Domain

HO-DSP ID Selector (SEL)
Identifier (AFI) Identifier

Area Address ID Selector (SEL)

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IS-IS Addressing
Sample NET Addresses

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IS-IS Addressing
Sample NET Addresses Notice the SEL
is always 00

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Designated Intermediate System (DIS)
• Broadcast networks support more than two routers which could
cause scalability problems with IS-IS
• IS-IS overcomes this inefficiency by creating a pseudonode to
manage synchronization issues that arise on the broadcast network
segment. A DIS exist for each IS-IS level (L1 and L2).
• By inserting the logical pseudonode into a broadcast segment, the
multi-access network segment is converted into multiple P2P
networks in the LSPDB

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IS-IS Configuration
Topology for Configuration

Gi0/2 10.12.1.0/24 Gi0/0/0/1

R1 XR2

NX-
3

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IS-IS Configuration: IOS XE
• Initialize the routing protocol
router isis [process-id]
• Enable Adjacency Logging (Optional)
log-adjacency-changes
• Define the NET Address
net area-systemid.sel
• Enable IS-IS on the interface
interface interface-id
ip router isis [process-id]
ipv6 router isis [process-id]
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IS-IS Configuration: IOS XE
R1#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
R1(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config-router)# log-adjacency-changes
R1(config-router)# net 49.0123.0001.0001.0001.00
R1(config-router)#interface gi0/2
R1(config-if)# ip router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config-if)# ipv6 router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config-if)#interface gi0/3
R1(config-if)# ip router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config-if)# ipv6 router isis CISCOLIVE
03:38:39.967: %CLNS-5-ADJCHANGE: ISIS: Adjacency to 0002.0002.0002 (GigabitEthernet0/2)
Up, new adjacency
03:38:41.967: %CLNS-5-ADJCHANGE: ISIS: Adjacency to 0002.0002.0002 (GigabitEthernet0/2)
Up, new adjacency

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IS-IS Configuration: IOS XR
• Initialize the routing protocol
router isis process-id
• Enable Adjacency Logging (Optional)
log-adjacency-changes
• Define the NET Address
net area-systemid.sel
• Initialize IPv6 Address family (optional)
address-family ipv6 unicast
• Enable IS-IS on the interface
interface interface-id
address-family ipv4 unicast
address-family ipv6 unicast
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IS-IS Configuration: IOS XR
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2#conf t
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis)# log-adjacency-changes
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis)# net 49.0123.0002.0002.0002.00
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis)# interface gi0/0/0/1
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if)# address-family ipv4 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if)# address-family ipv6 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if-af)# interface gi0/0/0/3
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if)# address-family ipv4 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if)# address-family ipv6 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-if-af)#commit
RP/0/0/CPU0:May 8 03:38:37.226 : isis[1010]: %ROUTING-ISIS-6-INFO_STARTUP_START : Cold
controlled start beginning

NoticeNotice
the config
the is
RP/0/0/CPU0:May 8 03:38:40.996 : isis[1010]: %ROUTING-ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE : Adjacency to
49.0123.0001.0001.0001 (GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1) (L1) Up, New adjacency
underindention
isis process
RP/0/0/CPU0:May 8 03:38:42.015 : isis[1010]: %ROUTING-ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE : Adjacency to
49.0123.0001.0001.0001 (GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1) (L2) Up, New adjacency

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IS-IS Configuration: NX-OS
• Enable the IS-IS feature
feature isis
• Initialize the routing protocol
router isis process-id
• Enable Adjacency Logging (Optional)
log-adjacency
• Define the NET Address
net area-systemid.sel
• Enable IS-IS on the interface
interface interface-id
ip router isis process-id
ipv6 router isis process-id
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IS-IS Configuration: NX-OS
NX-3(config)# feature isis
NX-3(config)# router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-router)# net 49.0123.0003.0003.0003.00
NX-3(config-router)# log-adjacency
NX-3(config-router)# interface ethernet2/1
NX-3(config-if)# ip router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-if)# ipv6 router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-if)# interface ethernet2/2
NX-3(config-if)# ip router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-if)# ipv6 router isis CISCOLIVE
03:55:40 NX-3 %ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE: isis-CISCOLIVE [9333] LAN adj L1 0001.0001.0001 over
Ethernet2/1 - INIT (New) on MT--1
03:55:41 NX-3 %ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE: isis-CISCOLIVE [9333] LAN adj L2 0001.0001.0001 over
Ethernet2/1 - INIT (New) on MT--1
03:55:41 NX-3 %ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE: isis-CISCOLIVE [9333] LAN adj L2 0001.0001.0001 over
Ethernet2/1 - UP on MT-0
03:55:41 NX-3 %ISIS-5-ADJCHANGE: isis-CISCOLIVE [9333] LAN adj L1 0001.0001.0001 over
Ethernet2/1 - UP on MT-0

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Trivia Question Hint

• How do you make the traffic between R1 and R4, take R5?
• How do you make the traffic between
HINT! R2 and R3, take the direct
link? One command on Four Routers

R5
R5

R1
R1 R2
R2 R3
R3 R4
R4

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Checking for Neighbor Adjacencies

Gi0/2 10.12.1.0/24 Gi0/0/0/1

R1 XR2

NX-
3

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Viewing IS-IS Neighbors
IOS XE
R1#show isis neighbors
Tag CISCOLIVE:
System Id Type Interface IP Address State Holdtime Circuit Id
XR2 L1 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 22 R1.02
XR2 L2 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 26 R1.02
NX-3 L1 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 26 R1.01
NX-3 L2 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 27 R1.01

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Viewing IS-IS Neighbors
IOS XE
R1#show isis neighbors
Tag CISCOLIVE:
System Id Type Interface IP Address State Holdtime Circuit Id
XR2 L1 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 22 R1.02
XR2 L2 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 26 R1.02
NX-3 L1 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 26 R1.01
NX-3 L2 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 27 R1.01

How did R1 find out the

system ID for XR2 and NX-3?

Was it CDP?

Is it DNS?

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Viewing IS-IS Neighbors
IOS XE
No! It is TLV#137
R1#show isis neighbors
Tag CISCOLIVE:
System Id Type Interface IP Address State Holdtime Circuit Id
XR2 L1 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 22 R1.02
XR2 L2 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 26 R1.02
NX-3 L1 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 26 R1.01
NX-3 L2 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 27 R1.01

How did R1 find out the

system ID is XR2 and NX-3?

Is it DNS?

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Hostname to LSP ID Conversion Can Be Disabled
IOS XE and NX-OS
• no hostname dynamic
IOS XR
• hostname dynamic disable
IOS XE
R1#show isis neighbors
Tag CISCOLIVE:
System Id Type Interface IP Address State Holdtime Circuit Id
0002.0002.0002 L1 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 22 R1.02
0002.0002.0002 L2 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 26 R1.02
0003.0003.0003 L1 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 26 R1.01
0003.0003.0003 L2 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 27 R1.01

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Viewing IS-IS Neighbors
IOS XE
R1#show isis neighbors
Tag CISCOLIVE:
System Id Type Interface IP Address State Holdtime Circuit Id
XR2 L1 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 22 R1.02
XR2 L2 Gi0/2 10.12.1.2 UP 26 R1.02
NX-3 L1 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 26 R1.01
NX-3 L2 Gi0/3 10.13.1.3 UP 27 R1.01

IOS XR
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2#show isis neighbors
IS-IS CISCOLIVE neighbors:
System Id Interface SNPA State Holdtime Type IETF-NSF
R1 Gi0/0/0/1 fa16.3eac.7a9b Up 9 L1L2 Capable
NX-3 Gi0/0/0/3 fa16.3e00.0002 Up 21 L1L2 Capable

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Viewing IS-IS Neighbors
NX-OS
NX-3# show isis adjacency
IS-IS process: CISCOLIVE VRF: default
IS-IS adjacency database:
Legend: '!': No AF level connectivity in given topology
System ID SNPA Level State Hold Time Interface
R1 fa16.3e69.d5fc 1 UP 00:00:10 Ethernet2/1
R1 fa16.3e69.d5fc 2 UP 00:00:10 Ethernet2/1
XR2 fa16.3e1f.787e 1 UP 00:00:08 Ethernet2/2
XR2 fa16.3e1f.787e 2 UP 00:00:07 Ethernet2/2

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Settings that are required for an IS-IS Adjacency
• IS-IS Interface is Active
• IS-IS Interface shares a common subnet
• Protocols match (IPv4, IPv6) per topology
• Circuit types match (General or Point to Point)
• Router levels are compatible
• L1 adjacencies require the area address to matches
• The system ID must be unique within the same area address

• IS-IS Hello Authentication matches

• MTU Matches
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IS-IS Topology
Constructs
 IS-IS Topologies
IS-IS maintains a copy of all the LSPs in a database for a Level
An LSP database per Level can be thought of as a topology.
How many topologies do you see?

L1 Adjacency L1 Adjacency

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 IS-IS Topologies
IS-IS maintains a copy of all the LSPs in a database for an Level
An LSP database per Level can be thought of as a topology.
How many topologies do you see?

L1 Adjacency L1 Adjacency

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency Backbone L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 IS-IS Topologies
IS-IS maintains a copy of all the LSPs in a database for an Level
An LSP database per Level can be thought of as a topology.
How many topologies do you see?

L1
Topology
Adjacency
2 L1
Topology
Adjacency
3

L2 Adjacency L2 AdjacencyTopology 1 L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Viewing an IS-IS Topology (IOS XE)
R1#show isis topology

Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-1 routers
System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
R1 --
R2 10 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5

IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-2 routers

System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
R1 --
R2 10 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5
R3 20 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5
R4 30 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5
R5 40 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5

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Viewing an IS-IS Topology (IOS XR)
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show isis topology

IS-IS CISCOLIVE paths to IPv4 Unicast (Level-1) routers

System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
XR1 --
XR2 10 XR2 Gi0/0/0/2 *PtoP*

IS-IS CISCOLIVE paths to IPv4 Unicast (Level-2) routers

System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
XR1 --
XR2 10 XR2 Gi0/0/0/2 *PtoP*
XR3 20 XR2 Gi0/0/0/2 *PtoP*
R4-XR 30 XR2 Gi0/0/0/2 *PtoP*
R5-XR 40 XR2 Gi0/0/0/2 *PtoP*

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Viewing an IS-IS Topology (NX-OS)
NX-1# show isis topology
IS-IS process: CISCOLIVE
VRF: default
IS-IS Level-1 IS routing table
NX-2.00, Instance 0x00000006
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 40

IS-IS Level-2 IS routing table

NX-2.00, Instance 0x00000009
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 40
NX-3.00, Instance 0x00000009
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 80
R4-NX.00, Instance 0x00000009
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 120
R4-NX.01, Instance 0x00000009
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 120
R5-NX.00, Instance 0x00000009
*via NX-2, Ethernet2/2, metric 130

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 Optimizing an Area
So currently R1 can reach R5 using just the L2 Backbone
What happens when the backbone shrinks between to R2 to R4?

L1 Adjacency
Local L1 Adjacency
Local

L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency Backbone L2 Adjacency L2 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Understanding Route Advertisement
• IS-IS builds the topology using TLV#2.
• Routes are built using TLV#128 and/or TLV#135
• All routers in the same L1/L2 area have the same LSPDBs for that
Level

L1 Adjacency L2 Backbone L1 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Setting IS-IS Adjacencies with Hierarchy Levels
Checking Interface IS-Setting

Router Level Commands

IOS XE, IOS XR
is-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2-only}
NX-OS
is-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2}

Interface Level Commands

IOS XE
is-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2-only}
IOS XR
circuit-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2-only}
NX-OS
Isis circuit-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2}

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Viewing an IS-IS Topology (IOS XE)
R1#show isis topology
Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-1 routers
System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
R1 --
R2 10 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5

R2#show isis topology

Tag CISCOLIVE:
R1 is no longer
IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-1 routers present in L2
System Id Metric Next-Hop Topology/Database
Interface SNPA
R1 10 R1 Gi0/1 fa16.3e5c.91c1
R2 --
IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-2 routers
System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
R2 --
R3 10 R3 Gi0/3 fa16.3e94.673d
R4 20 R3 Gi0/3 fa16.3e94.673d
R5 30 R3 Gi0/3 fa16.3e94.673d

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How a Router
Builds an IS-IS
Topology
Understanding How the Topology is Built
• Topology is built off of TLV#2 (IS-Neighbors) and the LSP-ID
• LSP-IDs that end with 00 are those of routers themselves
• Remember the SEL being set to 00 back from the NET addressing?
• LSP-IDs that DO NOT end with 00 are those of DIS (pseudonode)
R1 P2P R2 R4

R3

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 Understanding How the Topology is Built
show isis database [LSP-ID] [level-1|level-2] [detail]
• Displays all the LSPs from a specific router (or DIS), Sequence Number,
Holdtime, Attribute fields (Partition, Attached/Overload/Router Type)

R1#show isis database

Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS Level-1 Link State Database:
LSPID LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime/Rcvd ATT/P/OL
R1.00-00 * 0x00000007 0x3E7A 757/* 0/0/0
R2.00-00 0x0000000A 0x40A6 576/1199 0/0/0

R1 P2P R2
R1-00 R2-00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (P2P)
show isis database [LSP-ID] [level-1|level-2] [detail]
R1#show isis database detail
Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS Level-1 Link State Database:
LSPID LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime/Rcvd ATT/P/OL
R1.00-00 * 0x00000007 0x3E7A 335/* 0/0/0
Area Address: 49.1234
NLPID: 0xCC 0x8E
Hostname: R1
Metric: 10 IS R2.00
IP Address: 192.168.1.1
Metric: 10 IP 10.12.1.0 255.255.255.0
Metric: 10 IP 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0
R2.00-00 0x0000000C 0xF0BB 939/1199 0/0/0
..

R1 P2P R2
R1-00 R2-00
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Understanding How the Topology is Built (P2P)
R1#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area

Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS Level-1 Link State Database:
R1.00-00 * 0x0000000A 0x7BEC 1038/* 0/0/0
Hostname: R1
Metric: 10 IS R2.00
R2.00-00 0x0000000C 0xF0BB 791/1199 0/0/0
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R1.00

R1 P2PR2
R1-00 R2-00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)

R1 P2P R2 R4

R3

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)
R2#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area
..
R2.00-00 0x0000017E 0x52E6 1130/1199 0/0/0
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R3.00-00 0x00000173 0xE6AF 1121/1198 0/0/0
Hostname: R3
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.00-00 0x0000017D 0x823F 1120/1198 0/0/0
Hostname: R4
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.01-00 0x00000172 0xB040 1130/1198 0/0/0
Metric: 0 IS R4.00
Metric: 0 IS R2.00
Metric: 0 IS R3.00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)
R2#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area
..
R2.00-00 0x0000017E
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R4.01 R2-00 R4-00

R3.00-00 0x00000173
R2 R4
Hostname: R3
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.00-00 0x0000017D
Hostname: R4
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.01-00 0x00000172
Metric: 0 IS R4.00
R3
Metric: 0 IS R2.00
R3-00
Metric: 0 IS R3.00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)
R2#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area
..
R2.00-00 0x0000017E
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 R4.01-00
IS R4.01 R2-00 R4-00

R3.00-00 must 0x00000173

be the
R2 R4
Hostname: R3 DIS
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.00-00 0x0000017D
Hostname: R4 R4.01
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.01-00 0x00000172
Metric: 0 IS R4.00
R3
Metric: 0 IS R2.00
R3-00
Metric: 0 IS R3.00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)
R2#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area
..
R2.00-00 0x0000017E
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R4.01 R2-00 R4-00

R3.00-00 0x00000173
R2 R4
Hostname: R3
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.00-00 0x0000017D
Hostname: R4 R4.01
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.01-00 0x00000172
Metric: 0 IS R4.00
R3
Metric: 0 IS R2.00
R3-00
Metric: 0 IS R3.00

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Understanding How the Topology is Built (Multi)
R2#show isis database detail | exclude IP|PID|Area
..
R2.00-00 0x0000017E
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R4.01 R2-00 R4-00

R3.00-00 0x00000173
R2 R4
Hostname: R3
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.00-00 0x0000017D
Hostname: R4 R4.01
Metric: 10 IS R4.01
R4.01-00 0x00000172
Metric: 0 IS R4.00
R3
Metric: 0 IS R2.00
R3-00
Metric: 0 IS R3.00

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Route
Advertisements
Understanding Route Advertisement
• IS-IS builds the topology using TLV#2.
• Routes are built using TLV#128 and/or TLV#135
• All routers in the same L1/L2 area have the same LSPDBs for that
Level

L1 Adjacency L2 Backbone L1 Adjacency

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Viewing Routes in the LSPDB
R1#show isis database R2.00-00 level-1 detail
Tag CISCOLIVE:

Metric for the

IS-IS Level-1 LSP R2.00-00
Connected
LSPID topology LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime/Rcvd ATT/P/OL
R2.00-00 0x0000000E 0x2BD0
IPv4 Networks602/1199 1/0/0
Area Address: 49.0012
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R1.00
IP Address: 192.168.2.2
Metric: 10 IP 10.12.1.0 255.255.255.0 Connected
Metric: 10 IP 10.23.1.0 255.255.255.0 IPv6 Networks
Metric: 10 IP 192.168.2.2 255.255.255.255
IPv6 Address: 2001:2:2::
Metric: 10 IPv6 2000:12::/64
Metric: 10 IPv6 2000:23::/64
Metric: 10 IPv6 2001:2:2::/128

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 Understanding Route Advertisement
• L1 advertises the router 192.168.1.1 within Area 49.0012 via L1
• R2 takes the L1 route and places it into the L2 router as its own
• R2’s L2 LSP is Forwarded to R3 and R4
• Does R4 advertise 192.168.1.1 into Area 49.0045?
• No, it does not!

192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1

?

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Understanding Route Advertisement
• L1 advertises the router 192.168.1.1 within Area 49.0012 via L1
• R2 takes the L1 route and places it into the L2 router as its own
• R2’s L2 LSP is Forwarded to R3 and R4
• Does R4 advertise 192.168.1.1 into Area 49.0045?
• No, it does not!

192.168.1.1 How does

192.168.1.1 R5 reach
192.168.1.1 R1?
192.168.1.1
?

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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The Attached Bit
• L1 routers use the attach bit to locate their nearest L1-L2 router
• That L1-L2 router must contain LSPs from a different area.
• The L1-L2 router acts as a gateway
• L1 routers translate the Attach bit as the default gateway

R2 sets attached bit R4 sets attached bit

on Area 49.0012 on Area 49.0045

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 The Attached Bit
• Can be viewed by looking examining Attribute fields

R1#show isis database

Tag CISCOLIVE:
IS-IS Level-1 Link State Database:
LSPID LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime/Rcvd ATT/P/OL
R1.00-00 * 0x0000002E 0xB3D2 1174/* 0/0/0
R2.00-00 0x0000002C 0xF6DE 932/1199 1/0/0

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 The Attached Bit
• Can be seen by viewing an explicit router’s LSP too
R1#show isis database detail R2.00-00
IS-IS Level-1 LSP R2.00-00
LSPID LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime/Rcvd ATT/P/OL
R2.00-00 0x0000002E 0xF2E0 725/1199 1/0/0
Area Address: 49.0012
NLPID: 0xCC 0x8E
Hostname: R2
Metric: 10 IS R1.00
IP Address: 192.168.2.2
Metric: 10 IP 10.12.1.0 255.255.255.0
Metric: 10 IP 10.23.1.0 255.255.255.0
Metric: 10 IP 192.168.2.2 255.255.255.255

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 The Attached Bit
• Translating it to the Routing Table

R1#show ip route isis

i*L1 0.0.0.0/0 [115/10] via 10.12.1.2, 00:03:18, GigabitEthernet0/2
10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 3 subnets, 2 masks
i L1 10.23.1.0/24 [115/20] via 10.12.1.2, 00:03:18, GigabitEthernet0/2
192.168.2.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets
i L1 192.168.2.2 [115/20] via 10.12.1.2, 00:03:18, GigabitEthernet0/2

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Viewing the Backbone Routing Table
R2#show ip route isis | ex subnet
i L2 10.34.1.0/24 [115/20] via 10.23.1.3, 00:18:41, GigabitEthernet0/3
i L2 10.45.1.0/24 [115/30] via 10.23.1.3, 00:18:41, GigabitEthernet0/3
i L1 192.168.1.1 [115/20] via 10.12.1.1, 07:54:35, GigabitEthernet0/1
i L2 192.168.3.3 [115/20] via 10.23.1.3, 00:18:41, GigabitEthernet0/3
i L2 192.168.4.4 [115/30] via 10.23.1.3, 00:18:41, GigabitEthernet0/3
i L2 192.168.5.5 [115/40] via 10.23.1.3, 00:18:41, GigabitEthernet0/3

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Overload Bit
Normal traffic flow between XR1 and R4 would be between XR2 and
R5 based on metric calculations

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Overload Bit
Traffic flow taken across links that have higher metric are not normal.

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Overload Bit
• The overload bit indicates a router in an overloaded condition.
• Routers avoid sending traffic through routers that set the overload bit.
• Upon recovery, the router advertises a new LSP without the overload
bit, and the SPF calculation occurs normally without avoiding routes
through the previously overloaded node.

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Overload Bit
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show isis database
IS-IS ISIS (Level-1) Link State Database
LSPID LSP Seq Num LSP Checksum LSP Holdtime ATT/P/OL
XR1.00-00 * 0x00000007 0x71d6 1046 0/0/0
XR2.00-00 0x0000000c 0x2557 1124 0/0/1
R3.00-00 0x00000009 0x5564 1031 0/0/0
R4.00-00 0x0000000c 0x8baa 1065 0/0/0
R5.00-00 0x00000009 0xa406 1155 0/0/1
R5.03-00 0x00000003 0x7ccc 1124 0/0/0

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Overload Bit
• Originally, the overload bit signified memory exhaustion, but current
routers have a significant amount of memory making those situations
very rare.
• Setting the overload bit on a router during maintenance windows is a
common technique to route traffic around the nodes being worked
on.
• Newer IS-IS functionality allows a router to set the overload bit when
it first starts up for a specific amount of time, or until BGP sessions
have stabilized.

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Route Metrics
Path Computation
After a router has built a topology of routers and their connecting
interfaces, it runs a Shortest Path First Computation
The local router is the top of SPF Tree. All other routers are a
branch. Calculations are made based off of interface cost

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Interface Metrics
RFC 1195 provides a 6-bit field supporting values 1-63
• Stored in TLV# 128
• Industry standard is that all interfaces are statically set to 10 by
default
R1#show isis database detail
..
R1.00-00 * 0x00000007 0x3E7A 335/* 0/0/0
Area Address: 49.1234
NLPID: 0xCC 0x8E
Hostname: R1
Metric: 10 IS R2.00

R1 P2P R2

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Interface Metrics
RFC 1195 provides a 6-bit field supporting values 1-63
• Stored in TLV# 128
• Industry standard is that all interfaces are statically set to 10 by
default
• Value are changed as needed statically as needed
• Except Nexus uses a reference bandwidth of 40 Gbps by default
• 10-Gigabit Interfaces are set to 4
• Gigabit Interfaces are set to 40

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Interface Wide Metrics
Some network engineers thought that 6-bits is not enough to tune a
network
• RFC 5305 introduced a new TLV# 135 that supported 32-bit
values
• Allows for wide scale of metrics to reflect values from T1 interfaces
to 100Gb interfaces
• Does not impact the way a topology is built, using TLV #2

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 What’s Wrong?
R1#show isis topology level-2
IS-IS TID 0 paths to level-2 routers
System Id Metric Next-Hop Interface SNPA
R1 --
R2 10 R2 Gi0/2 fa16.3ed4.04f5
R3 **
R4 **
IS-IS builds the topology on TLV #2.
R5 **

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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 Mismatch Metric Types

• TLVs are transmitted as long as they are recognized

• When a router does not recognize a TLV it drops it.
IOS XE and IOS XR use Narrow Metrics by Default
NX-OS uses Wide Metrics by default

TLV #128 TLV #135 TLV #135 TLV #135

R1 R3 R5
R2 R4
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
L2 L1-L2
L1-L2
Area Area Area
49.0012 49.0003 49.0045

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Checking Metric Style

IOS XE
R1#show isis protocol | i narrow|wide
Generate narrow metrics: level-1-2
Accept narrow metrics: level-1-2
Generate wide metrics: none
Accept wide metrics: none
Generate narrow metrics: level-1-2
Accept narrow metrics: level-1-2
Generate wide metrics: none
Accept wide metrics: none

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Checking Metric Style

IOS XR
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR1#show isis protocol | i "Level-|style"
Level-1
Metric style (generate/accept): Narrow/Narrow
Level-2
Metric style (generate/accept): Narrow/Narrow

NX-OS
NX-1# show isis protocol | i Metric
Metric-style : advertise(wide), accept(narrow, wide)

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Narrow vs. Wide Metrics
A router can use Narrow, Wide, or Transition Metrics (Both)

IOS XE
router isis CISCOLIVE
metric-style {narrow | transition | wide}

IOS XR
router isis CISCOLIVE
address-family ipv4 unicast
metric-style {narrow | transition | wide}

NX-OS
router isis CISCOLIVE
Needs to be consistently Narrow or
metric-style transition
Wide (Exception is Transition)

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Trivia Question Hint

• How do you make the traffic between R1 and R4, take R5?
• How do you make the traffic between R2 and R3, take the direct
link?

One One
command R5
R5 command
on R1 on R4

R1
R1 R2
R2 R3
R3 R4
R4

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IPv6 Support
IS-IS for IPv6

• IPv6 Address Family support (RFC 2308)

• 2 new Tag/Length/Values added to introduce IPv6 routing
• IPv6 Reachability TLV#236:
• Equivalent to IP Internal/External Reachability TLV’s
• IPv6 Interface Address TLV #232
• For Hello PDUs, must contain the link-local address
• For LSP, must contain the non-link local address

• IPv6 NLPID (Network Layer Protocol Identifier) TLV#232 is

advertised by IPv6 enabled routers

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 IS-IS for IPv6
Restrictions with Single Topology
• In Single topology IS-IS for IPv6 uses the same SPF for both IPv4
and IPv6.
• Remember that the protocol must match for an adjacency to form?
IPv4 and IPv6 topologies MUST match exactly
• Cannot run IS-IS IPv6 on some interfaces,
IS-IS IPv4 on others.
• An IS-IS IPv6-only router will not form an
adjacency with an IS-IS IPv4/IPv6 router
No Adjacency
(Exception is over L2-only interface)
R1 R2
IPv6 / IPv4 IPv6-only

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IS-IS for IPv6
Multi-Topology IS-IS extensions

• Multi-Topology IS-IS solves the restrictions of Single topology

• Two independent topology databases maintained
• IPv4 uses Multi-Topology ID (MTID) zero(0)
• New Multi-Topology ID (MTID #2) for IPv6
• Multi-Topology IS-IS has updated packets
• Hello packets marked with MTID #0 or MTID #2
• New TLV attributes introduced
• Each LSP is marked with the corresponding MTID
• Miss-Matched MTID values
• No effect on broadcast segments, adjacency will form
• Point-to-point segments, adjacency will not form
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IS-IS for IPv6
Choosing Single or Multi-Topology IS-IS
Use Single-Topology for:
• No planned differences in topology between IPv4 and IPv6
• Each interface has the same IPv4 and IPv6 router Level

Use Multi-Topology for:

• Incremental roll-out of IPv6 on an IPv4 topology
• If you plan for differences in topology between IPv4 and IPv6

The optional keyword transition may be used for transitioning existing

IS-IS IPv6 single Topology mode to Multi-Topology IS-IS
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IS-IS for IPv6
Transition to Multi-Topology IS-IS – Wide Metrics
• Ensure “Wide metric” is enabled
• Mandatory for Multi-Topology to work
• When migrating from narrow to wide metrics, care is required
• Narrow and wide metrics are NOT compatible with each other

• Migration is a two stage process

• Step 1: make use of the transition keyword
router isis router isis
metric-style transition metric-style wide

• Step 2: Once the whole network is changed to transition support, the metric style
can be changed to wide

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Trivia Question:
ANSWER
Trivia Question Answer

• How do you make the traffic between R1 and R4, take R5?
• How do you make the traffic betweenonR2R2and R3, take the direct
One command
link? or R3

One One
command R5
R5 command
on R1 L2 on R4

R1
R1 R2
R2 R3
R3 R4
R4
L2 L1- L1- L2
L2 L2
L1 Only Link
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Area Design

R4 R5 R6 R7 R8
L1-L2 L1 L1 L1-L2 L2

Area 8
Area 4567

R2 R3
L1-L2 L1-L2

R1 needs to send packets to R8.

R1
Which path do the packets take?
L1 Area 123

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Area Design

R4 R5 R6 R7 R8
L1-L2 L1 L1 L1-L2 L2

Area 8
Area 4567

R2 R3
L1-L2 L1-L2

R1 needs to send packets to R8.

R1
Which path do the packets take?
L1 Area 123

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Area Design And now we have
a routing loop

R4 R5 R6 R7 R8
L1-L2 L1 L1 L1-L2 L2

Area 8
Area 4567

R2 R5 sends the packet to R4R3it does

not have a
L1-L2 route to R8 andL1-L2
R5 is the
closest router with the attach bit
R1 needs to send packets to R8.
R1
Which path do the packets take?
L1 Area 123

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Sup-Optimal IS-IS
Routing
- Area design
Areas and Suboptimal Routing
Area 78
R4 R5 R6
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
10 10 R8
10 L1
R7 10
Area 456 L1-L2
10
10

R2 R3
L1-L2 L1-L2

10 20 R1 needs to send packets to R8.

R1
Which path do the packets take?
L1 Area 123

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 Areas and Suboptimal Routing
Area 2
R4 R5 R6
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
10 10 R8
10 L1
R7 10
L1-L2 Router B
10
10
CLOSEST
L1L2
R2 R3
L1-L2 L1-L2

10 20
R1 locate the router with
R1 the closest Attach Bit
L1 Area 1
Router A

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 Areas and Suboptimal Routing
TOTAL
METRIC = 60 Area 2
R4 R5 R6
L1-L2 L1-L2 L1-L2
10 10 R8
10 L1
R7 10
L1-L2 Router B
10
10
CLOSEST
L1L2
R2 R3
L1-L2 L1-L2
OPTIMAL ROUTE,
10 20 TOTAL METRIC=40

R1
L1 Area 1
Router A

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 Overcoming Areas and Suboptimal Routing

• All the L1-routers in a given pop will receive the ATT bit set by the
L1L2 router at the edge of the POP
• L1 routers install a default route based on the ATT bit
• This will cause sub-optimal routing in reaching the prefixes outside
the POP by the local routers
• This can be overcome by Leaking more explicit L2 routes into the L1
area

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L2 → L1 Leaking Configuration
IOS XE
R1#conf t
R1(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config)#redistribute isis ip level-2 into level-1

IOS XR
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2#conf t
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis)#address-family ipv4 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-af)# propagate level 2 into level 1

NX-OS
R1#conf t
NX-3(config)# router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-router)# distribute level-2 into level-1 all

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L2 → L1 Leaking Configuration (Conditions)
IOS XE
R1#conf t
R1(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
R1(config)#redistribute isis ip level-2 into level-1 route-map CONDITIONAL

IOS XR
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2#conf t
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config)#router isis CISCOLIVE
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis)#address-family ipv4 unicast
RP/0/0/CPU0:XR2(config-isis-af)# propagate level 2 into level 1 route-policy CONDITIONAL

NX-OS
R1#conf t
NX-3(config)# router isis CISCOLIVE
NX-3(config-router)# distribute level-2 into level-1 route-map CONDITIONAL

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Area and Scaling
Areas vs. single area
• ISIS supports a large number of routers in a single area
• More than 400 routers in the backbone is possible

• Starting with L2-only everywhere is a good choice

• Backbone continuity is ensured from the start
• Future implementation of level-1 areas will be easier

• Use areas in places where sub-optimal routing is acceptable

• areas with a single exit point is a better choice from an optimal routing
standpoint

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 Area Design 49.001
49.0001
49.001
L1-Only POP

49.001 49.001

L1-Only
• In this design, all the routers will be running in one area and are all doing L1-
only routing
• This design is flat with a single L1-only database running on all the routers
• If you have a change in the topology, the SPF computation will be done in all
the routers as they are in the L1-only domain
• SPs picked L1-only to avoid sub-optimal routing problems
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 Area Design 49.000
49.000
49.000
L2-Only POP

49.000 49.000

L2-Only
• In this design, all the routers will be running L2-Only in the network
• With the same Area in all the POPs
• Optimal routing with L2-only database
• Traffic-engineering support with no restrictions, just like L1-only

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 Area Design 49.001
49.000
49.004
L2-Only POP

49.002 49.003

L2-Only
• In this design, all the routers will be running L2-Only in the network
• With the different Area in all the POPs
• No summarization and No route-leaking
• All the routers in L2 will share all the LSPs and provides optimal routing (similar to L1-
Only POPs)
• As the network grows, easy to bring the L1-only POPs/sub-networks for easy migration

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 Area Design
L1 in the POP and L2 in the Core L1L2
49.000
49.001 49.004

L1-Only L2-Only L1-Only

49.002 49.003

• Within a given local pop—all the routers will be in a separate area

• The L1-L2 routers at the edge of the POPs will be running
• L1-adj going into the POP
• L2-adj into the core with the rest of the L1-L2 routers
• The SPF computations will be limited to the respective L1-areas only
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 Area Design
L1 in the POP and L2 in the Core
• All the L1-routers in a given pop will receive the ATT bit set by the
L1L2 router at the edge of the POP
• L1 routers install a default route based on the ATT bit
• This will cause sub-optimal routing in reaching L2 Core

the prefixes outside the POP by the local routers

L1/L2
• Summarization at the L1L2 boundary L1/L2
L1 Only
• potential sub-optimal inter-area routing in certain Area 49.0004
failure conditions
L1 L1
• potential black-holing of traffic
• potential breaking of MPLS LSP among PEs

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L1-L2 Router at Edge of POP
Route-Leaking

• It is recommended to configure the L1-L2 routers at the edge of

the pop with route-leaking capabilities
• Leak BGP next-hops and summarize physical link
• Hence the L1 routers will be able to take the right exit/entry router
based on the metric of the leaked IP-prefix
• Optimal Inter-Area Routing
• Ensure ‘metric-style wide’ is configured when leaking routes
e.g. MPLS-VPN (PEs Loopback Reachability and LSP binding)

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