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NorthStar Planner Equal Cost Multiple Paths Overview

This chapter describes several Equal Cost Multiple-Paths (ECMP) features and walks through a scenario where it is useful. The user will be able to display all the equal cost multiple-paths in the network as well as view any equal cost paths between two given nodes in detail. The user can also split flows into sub-flows. Note that parallel links between two nodes do not count towards ECMPs.

Sometimes it is desirable to reduce the number of Equal Cost Multiple-Paths in order to improve the predictability of how demands will be routed in the network. At other times it is desirable to split flows into sub-flows with Equal Cost Multiple-Paths in order to perform load balancing. NorthStar Planner will place these flows on routing paths that have identical costs.

For an overview of NorthStar Planner or for a detailed description of each feature and the use of each window, refer to the Router Reference section in this guide or the NorthStar Planner User Interface Guide.