Routing and Forwarding Tables

The primary function of the JUNOS routing protocol process is maintaining routing tables and using the information in them to determine active routes to network destinations. It copies information about the active routes into the Routing Engine's forwarding table, which the JUNOS kernel copies to the Packet Forwarding Engine.

By default, the routing protocol process maintains the following routing tables and uses the information in each table to determine active routes to network destinations:

• Unicast routing table—Stores routing information for all unicast protocols running on the router, including BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, and RIP. You can also configure additional routes, such as static routes, for inclusion in the routing table. The unicast routing protocols use the routes in this table when advertising routing information to their neighbors.

  In the unicast routing table, the routing protocol process designates routes with the lowest preference values as active. By default, a route's preference value is simply a function of how the routing protocol process learned about the route. You can modify the default preference value by setting routing policies and configuring other software parameters. See Routing Policy.

• Multicast routing table (cache)—Stores routing information for all multicast protocols running on the router, including DVMRP and PIM. You can configure additional routes for inclusion in the routing table.

  In the multicast routing table, the routing protocol process uses traffic flow and other parameters specified by the multicast routing protocol algorithms to select active routes.

• MPLS routing table—Stores MPLS label information.

For unicast routes, the routing protocol process determines active routes by choosing the most preferred route, which is the route with the lowest preference value. By default, the route’s preference value is simply a function of how the routing protocol process learned about the route. You can modify the default preference value using routing policy and with software configuration parameters.

For multicast traffic, the routing protocol process determines active routes based on traffic flow and other parameters specified by the multicast routing protocol algorithms. The routing protocol process then installs one or more active routes to each network destination into the Routing Engine’s forwarding table.

You can configure additional routing tables to meet your requirements, as described in the JUNOS Internet Software Configuration Guide: Routing and Routing Protocols.

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