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Load Balancing on Aggregated Ethernet Interfaces

SUMMARY Load balancing on aggregated ethernet interfaces reduces network congestion by dividing traffic among multiple interfaces.

When you bundle several physical aggregated Ethernet Interfaces to form a single logical interface, it is called link aggregation. Link aggregation increases bandwidth, provides graceful degradation as failure occurs, increases availability and provides load-balancing capabilities. Load balancing enables the device to divide incoming and outgoing traffic along multiple interfaces to reduce congestion in the network. This topic describes load balancing and how to configure load balancing on your device.

Understanding Aggregated Ethernet Load Balancing

The link aggregation feature is used to bundle several physical aggregated Ethernet interfaces to form one logical interface. One or more links are aggregated to form a virtual link or link aggregation group (LAG). The MAC client treats this virtual link as if it were a single link. Link aggregation increases bandwidth, provides graceful degradation as failure occurs, and increases availability.

In addition to these benefits, an aggregated Ethernet bundle is enhanced to provide load-balancing capabilities that ensure that the link utilization among the member links of the aggregated Ethernet bundle are fully and efficiently utilized.

The load-balancing feature allows a device to divide incoming and outgoing traffic along multiple paths or interfaces in order to reduce congestion in the network. Load balancing improves the utilization of various network paths and provides more effective network bandwidth.

Typically, the applications that use load balancing include:

  • Aggregated Interfaces (Layer 2)

    Aggregated Interfaces (also called AE for aggregated Ethernet, and AS for aggregated SONET) are a Layer 2 mechanism for load-balancing across multiple interfaces between two devices. Because this is a Layer 2 load-balancing mechanism, all of the individual component links must be between the same two devices on each end. Junos OS supports a non-signaled (static) configuration for Ethernet and SONET, as well as the 802.3ad standardized LACP protocol for negotiation over Ethernet links.

  • Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) (Layer 3)

    By default, when there are multiple equal-cost paths to the same destination for the active route, Junos OS uses a hash algorithm to choose one of the next-hop addresses to install in the forwarding table. Whenever the set of next hops for a destination changes in any way, the next-hop address is rechosen using the hash algorithm. There is also an option that allows multiple next-hop addresses to be installed in the forwarding table, known as per-packet load balancing.

    ECMP load balancing can be:

    • Across BGP paths (BGP multipath)

    • Within a BGP path, across multiple LSPs

In complex Ethernet topologies, traffic imbalances occur due to increased traffic flow, and load balancing becomes challenging for some of the following reasons:

  • Incorrect load balancing by aggregate next hops

  • Incorrect packet hash computation

  • Insufficient variance in the packet flow

  • Incorrect pattern selection

As a result of traffic imbalance, the load is not well distributed causing congestion in certain links, whereas some other links are not efficiently utilized.

To overcome these challenges, Junos OS provides the following solutions for resolving the genuine traffic imbalance on aggregated Ethernet bundles (IEEE 802.3ad).

  • Adaptive Load Balancing

    Adaptive load balancing uses a feedback mechanism to correct a genuine traffic imbalance. To correct the imbalance weights, the bandwidth and packet stream of links are adapted to achieve efficient traffic distribution across the links in an AE bundle.

    To configure adaptive load balancing, include the adaptive statement at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance] hierarchy level.

    Note:

    Adaptive load balancing is not supported if the VLAN ID is configured on the aggregated Ethernet interface. This limitation affects the PTX Series Packet Transport Routers and QFX10000 switches only.

    To configure the tolerance value as a percentage, include the tolerance optional keyword at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance adaptive] hierarchy level.

    To configure adaptive load balancing based on packets per second (instead of the default bits per second setting), include the pps optional keyword at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance adaptive] hierarchy level.

    To configure the scan interval for the hash value based on the sample rate for the last two seconds, include the scan-interval optional keyword at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance adaptive] hierarchy level.

    Note:

    The pps and scan-interval optional keywords are supported on PTX Series Packet Transport Routers only.

  • Per-Packet Random Spray Load Balancing

    When the adaptive load-balancing option fails, per-packet random spray load balancing serves as a last resort. It ensures that the members of an AE bundle are equally loaded without taking bandwidth into consideration. Per packet causes packet reordering and hence is recommended only if the applications absorb reordering. Per-packet random spray eliminates traffic imbalance that occurs as a result of software errors, except for packet hash.

    To configure per-packet random spray load balancing, include the per-packet statement at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance] hierarchy level.

The aggregated Ethernet load-balancing solutions are mutually exclusive. When more than one of the load-balancing solutions is configured, the solution that is configured last overrides the previously configured one. You can verify the load-balancing solution being used by issuing the show interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance command.

Stateful Load Balancing for Aggregated Ethernet Interfaces Using 5-Tuple Data

When multiple flows are transmitted out of an aggregated Ethernet (ae) interface, the flows must be distributed across the different member links evenly to enable an effective and optimal load-balancing behavior. To obtain a streamlined and robust method of load-balancing, the member link of the aggregated Ethernet interface bundle that is selected each time for load balancing plays a significant part. In Junos OS releases earlier than Release 13.2R1, on MX Series routers with Trio-based FPCs (MPCs), the selection of a member link of the ae interface bundle or the next-hop (or unilist of next-hops) for equal-cost multipath ECM) links is performed using a balanced mode next-hop selection methodology and an unbalanced mode of member link or next-hop selection methodology. The balanced mode of link selection uses 'n' bits in a precomputed hash value if it needs to select one of 2^n (2 raised to the power of n) next-hop in the unilist. The unbalanced mode of member-link or next-hop selection uses 8 bits in a precomputed hash to select an entry in a selector table, which is randomly done with the member link IDs of the link aggregation group (LAG) or aebundle.

The term balanced versus unbalanced indicates whether a selector table is used for load balancing mechanism or not. The LAG bundle uses the unbalanced mode (selector table balancing) to balance the traffic across member links. When the traffic flows are minimal, the following problems might occur with the unbalanced mode: The link selection logic utilizes only subset bits of the precomputed hash. Regardless of the efficiency of the hashing algorithm, it is only the compressed representation of a flow. Because the inter-flow variance is very low, the resultant hashes and the subset that are computed do not provide the necessary variability to effectively utilize all the LAG member links. An excessive amount of random nature exists in the hash computation and also in the selector table. As a result, the deviation from being an optimal load-balancing technique for each child link that is selected is higher when the number of flows is lower.

The deviation per child link is defined as

Vi = ((Ci - (M/N)))/N

where

  • Vi denotes the deviation for that child link ’i’.

  • i denotes the child link member/index.

  • Ci represents the packets transmitted for that child link 'i'.

  • M signifies the total packets transmitted on that LAG bundle.

  • N denotes the number of child links in that LAG.

Because of these drawbacks, for smaller number of flows, or flows with less inter-flow variance, the link utilization is skewed, and a high probability of a few child links not being utilized entirely exists. Starting with Junos OS Release 13.2R1, the capability to perform uniform load balancing and also perform rebalancing is introduced on MX Series routers with MPCs, except MPC3Es and MPC4Es. Rebalancing is not supported when load-balancing is skewed or distorted owing to a change in the number of flows.

The mechanism to record and retain states for the flows and distribute the traffic load accordingly is added. As a result, for m number of flows, they are distributed among n member links of a LAG bundle or among the unilist of next-hops in an ECMP link. This method of splitting the load among member links is called stateful load balancing and it uses 5-tuple information (source and destination addresses, protocol, source and destination ports). Such a method can be mapped directly to the flows, or to a precompute hash based on certain fields in the flow. As a result, the deviation observed on each child link is reduced.

This mechanism works efficiently only for minimal number of flows (less than thousands of flows, approximately). For a larger number of flows (between 1000 and 10,000 flows), we recommend that distributed Trio-based load-balancing mechanism is used.

Consider a sample scenario in which 'n' links in the LAG are identified with link IDs of 0 through n-1. A hash table or a flow table is used to record the flows as and when they show up. The hashing key is constructed using the fields that uniquely identify a flow. The result of the lookup identifies the link_id that the flow is currently using. For each packet, the flow table based on the flow identifier is examined. If a match is found, it denotes a packet that belongs to a flow that is previously processed or detected. The link ID is associated with the flow. If a match is not found, it is the first packet that belongs to the flow. The link ID is used to select the link and the flow is inserted into the flow table.

To enable per-flow load balancing based on hash values, include the per-flow statement at the at the [edit interfaces aeX unit logical-unit-number forwarding-options load-balance-stateful] hierarchy level. By default, Junos OS uses a hashing method based only on the destination address to elect a forwarding next hop when multiple equal-cost paths are available. All Packet Forwarding Engine slots are assigned the same hash value by default. To configure the load-balancing algorithm to dynamically rebalance the LAG using existing parameters, include the rebalance interval statement at the [edit interfaces aeX unit logical-unit-number forwarding-options load-balance-stateful] hierarchy level. This parameter periodically load balances traffic by providing a synchronized rebalance switchover across all the ingress Packet Forwarding Engines (PFEs) over a rebalance interval. You can specify the interval as a value in the range of 1 through 1000 flows per minute. To configure the load type, include the load-type (low | medium | high) statement at the [edit interfaces aeX unit logical-unit-number forwarding-options load-balance-stateful] hierarchy level.

The stateful per-flow option enables the load-balancing capability on AE bundles. The rebalance option clears the load balance state at specified intervals. The load option informs the Packet Forwarding Engine regarding the appropriate memory pattern to be used. If the number of flows that flow on this aggregated Ethernet interface is less (between 1 and 100 flows), then the low keyword can be used. Similarly for relatively higher flows (between 100 and 1000 flows), the medium keyword can be used and the large keyword can be used for the maximum flows (between 1000 and 10,000 flows). The approximate number of flows for effective load-balancing for each keyword is a derivative.

The clear interfaces aeX unit logical-unit-number forwarding-options load-balance state command clears the load balance state at the hardware level and enables rebalancing from the cleaned up, empty state. This clear state is triggered only when you use this command. The clear interfaces aggregate forwarding-options load-balance state command clears all the aggregate Ethernet interface load balancing states and re-creates them newly.

Guidelines for Configuring Stateful Load Balancing for Aggegated Ethernet Interfaces or LAG Bundles

Keep the following points in mind while configuring stateful load-balancing for aggregated Ethernet interfaces:

  • When a child link is removed or added, a new aggregate selector is selected and traffic flows onto the new selector. Because the selector is empty, flows are filled in the selector. This behavior causes redistribution of flows because the old state is lost. This is the existing behavior without enabling stateful per-flow load-balancing.

  • Stateful per-flow load-balancing functions on AE interfaces if the incoming traffic reaches the MPC1E, MPC2E, MPC3E-3D, MPC5E, and MPC6E line cards. Any other type of line card does not rigger this functionality. Appropriate CLI errors are displayed if the MPCs do not support this capability.

    With the ingress line card as MPC and the egress line card as MPC or DPC, this feature works properly. Stateful load-balancing is not supported if the ingress line card is a DPC and the egress line card is a DPC or an MPC.

  • This capability is not supported for multicast traffic (native/flood).

  • Enabling the rebalance option or clearing the load balance state can cause packet reordering for active flows because different sets of links can be selected for traffic flows.

  • Although the feature performance is high, it consumes significant amount of line card memory. Approximately, 4000 logical interfaces or 16 aggregated Ethernet logical interfaces can have this feature enabled on supported MPCs. However, when the Packet Forwarding Engine hardware memory is low, depending upon the available memory, it falls back to the default load balancing mechanism. A system logging message is generated in such a situation and sent to the Routing Engine. A restriction on the number of AE interfaces that support stateful load-balancing does not exist; the limit is determined by the line cards.

  • If the traffic flows become aged frequently, then the device needs to remove or refresh the load balancing states. As a result, you must configure rebalancing or run the clear command at periodic intervals for proper load-balancing. Otherwise, traffic skewing can occur. When a child link goes down or comes up, the load balancing behavior does not undergo changes on existing flows. This condition is to avoid packet reordering. New flows pick up the child link that come up. If you observe load distribution to be not very effective, you can clear the load-balancing states or use rebalancing functionality to cause an automatic clearance of the hardware states. When you configure the rebalancing facility, traffic flows can get redirected to different links, which can cause packet reordering.

Configuring Stateful Load Balancing on Aggregated Ethernet Interfaces

The mechanism to record and retain states for the flows and distribute the traffic load accordingly is added. As a result, for m number of flows, they are distributed among n member links of a LAG bundle or among the unilist of next-hops in an ECMP link. This method of splitting the load among member links is called stateful load balancing and it uses 5-tuple information (source and destination addresses, protocol, source and destination ports). Such a method can be mapped directly to the flows, or to a precompute hash based on certain fields in the flow. As a result, the deviation observed on each child link is reduced.

To configure stateful load balancing on ae interface bundles:

  1. Specify that you want to configure an aggregated Ethernet interface.
  2. Specify that you want to configure stateful load-balancing.
  3. Enable the mechanism to perform an even, effective distribution of traffic flows across member links of an aggregated Ethernet interface (ae) bundle on MX Series routers with MPCs, except MPC3Es and MPC4Es.
  4. Configure periodic rebalancing of traffic flows of an aggregated Ethernet bundle by clearing the load balance state at a specified interval.
  5. Define the load-balancing type to inform the Packet Forwarding Engine regarding the appropriate memory pattern to be used for traffic flows. The approximate number of flows for effective load-balancing for each keyword is a derivative.
  6. Configure the address family and IP address for the ae interface.

Configuring Adaptive Load Balancing

This topic describes how to configure adaptive load balancing. Adaptive load balancing maintains efficient utilization of member link bandwidth for an aggregated Ethernet (AE) bundle. Adaptive load balancing uses a feedback mechanism to correct traffic load imbalance by adjusting the bandwidth and packet streams on links within an AE bundle.

Before you begin:

  • Configure a set of interfaces with a protocol family and IP address. These interfaces can make up the membership for the AE bundle.

  • Create an AE bundle by configuring a set of router interfaces as aggregated Ethernet and with a specific AE group identifier.

To configure adaptive load balancing for an AE bundles:

  1. Enable adaptive load balancing on the AE bundle:
  2. Configure the scan interval value for adaptive load balancing on the AE bundle. The scan interval value determines the length of the traffic scan by multiplying the integer value with a 30-second time period:
  3. Configure the tolerance percentage value. The tolerance value determines the allowed deviation in the traffic rates among the members of the AE bundle before the router triggers an adaptive load balancing update:
  4. (Optional) Enable packet-per-second-based adaptive load balancing on the AE bundle:

Configuring PIC-Level Symmetrical Hashing for Load Balancing on 802.3ad LAGs for MX Series Routers

Symmetrical hashing for load balancing on an 802.3ad Link Aggregation Group (LAG) is useful when two MX Series routers (for example, Router A and Router B) are connected transparently through Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) devices over a LAG bundle. The DPI devices keep track of traffic flows in both the forward and reverse directions.

If symmetrical hashing is configured, the reverse flow of traffic is also directed through the same child link on the LAG and is bound to flow through the same DPI device. This enables proper accounting on the DPI of the traffic in both the forward and reverse flows.

If symmetrical hashing is not configured, a different child link on the LAG might be chosen for the reverse flow of traffic through a different DPI device. This results in incomplete information about the forward and reverse flows of traffic on the DPI device leading to incomplete accounting of the traffic by the DPI device.

Symmetrical hashing is computed based on fields like source address and destination address. You can configure symmetrical hashing both at the chassis level and the PIC level for load balancing based on Layer 2, Layer 3, and Layer 4 data unit fields for family inet (IPv4 protocol family) and multiservice (switch or bridge) traffic. Symmetrical hashing configured at the chassis level is applicable to the entire router, and is inherited by all its PICs and Packet Forwarding Engines. Configuring PIC-level symmetrical hashing provides you more granularity at the Packet Forwarding Engine level.

For the two routers connected through the DPI devices over a LAG bundle, you can configure symmetric-hash on one router and symmetric-hash complement on the remote-end router or vice-versa.

To configure symmetrical hashing at the chassis level, include the symmetric-hash or the symmetric-hash complement statements at the [edit forwarding-options hash-key family] hierarchy level. For information about configuring symmetrical hashing at the chassis level and configuring the link index, see the Junos OS Network Interfaces Library for Routing Devices and the Junos OS VPNs Library for Routing Devices.

Note:

On MX Series DPCs, configuring symmetrical hashing at the PIC level refers to configuring symmetrical hashing at the Packet Forwarding Engine level.

To configure symmetrical hashing at the PIC level on the inbound traffic interface (where traffic enters the router), include the symmetric-hash or symmetric-hash complement statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key] hierarchy level:

Note:
  • PIC-level symmetrical hashing overrides the chassis-level symmetrical hashing configured at the [edit chassis forwarding-options hash-key] hierarchy level.

  • Symmetrical hashing for load balancing on 802.3ad Link Aggregation Groups is currently supported for the VPLS, INET and bridged traffic only.

  • Hash key configuration on a PIC or Packet Forwarding Engine can be either in the “symmetric hash” or the “symmetric hash complement” mode, but not both at the same time.

Examples: Configuring PIC-Level Symmetrical Hashing for Load Balancing on 802.3ad LAGs on MX Series Routers

Note:

These examples are applicable only to the DPCs Supported on MX240, MX480, and MX960 Routers. For the list of DPCs supported, see DPCs Supported on MX240, MX480, and MX960 Routers in the Related Documentation section.

The following examples show how to configure symmetrical hashing at the PIC level for load balancing on MX Series routers:

Configuring Symmetrical Hashing for family multiservice on Both Routers

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router A, include the symmetric-hash statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family multiservice] hierarchy level:

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router B, include the symmetric-hash complement statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family multiservice] hierarchy level:

Configuring Symmetrical Hashing for family inet on Both Routers

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router A, include the symmetric-hash statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family inet] hierarchy level:

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router B, include the symmetric-hash complement statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family inet] hierarchy level:

Configuring Symmetrical Hashing for family inet and family multiservice on the Two Routers

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router A, include the symmetric-hash statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family multiservice] hierarchy level:

On the inbound traffic interface where traffic enters Router B, include the symmetric-hash complement statement at the [edit chassis fpc slot-number pic pic-number hash-key family inet] hierarchy level:

Example: Configuring Aggregated Ethernet Load Balancing

Example: Configuring Aggregated Ethernet Load Balancing

This example shows how to configure aggregated Ethernet load balancing.

Requirements

This example uses the following hardware and software components:

  • Three MX Series routers with MIC and MPC interfaces or three PTX Series Packet Transport Routers with PIC and FPC interfaces

  • Junos OS Release 13.3 or later running on all devices

Overview

Load balancing is required on the forwarding plane when there are multiple paths or interfaces available to the next hop router, and it is best if the incoming traffic is load balanced across all available paths for better link utilization.

Aggregated Ethernet bundle is a typical application that uses load balancing to balance traffic flows across the member links of the bundle (IEEE 802.3ad).

Starting with Junos OS Release 13.3, aggregated Ethernet load balancing is enhanced to provide two solutions for resolving genuine traffic imbalance on aggregated Ethernet bundles on MICs or MPCs of MX Series routers. Starting with Junos OS Release 14.1, aggregated Ethernet load balancing is enhanced to provide two solutions for resolving genuine traffic imbalance on aggregated Ethernet bundles on PICs or FPCs of PTX Series Packet Transport Routers.

The aggregated Ethernet load-balancing solutions are:

  • Adaptive—Adaptive load balancing is used in scenarios where flow-based hashing is not sufficient to achieve a uniform load distribution. This load-balancing solution implements a real-time feedback and control mechanism to monitor and manage imbalances in network load.

    The adaptive load-balancing solution corrects the traffic flow imbalance by modifying the selector entries, and periodically scanning the link utilization on each member link of the AE bundle to detect any deviations. When a deviation is detected, an adjustment event is triggered and fewer flows are mapped to the affected member link. As a result, the offered bandwidth of that member link goes down. This causes a continuous feedback loop, which over a period of time ensures that the same amount of byte rate is offered to all the member links, thus providing efficient traffic distribution across each member link in the AE bundle.

    To configure adaptive load balancing, include the adaptive statement at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance] hierarchy level.

    Note:

    Adaptive load balancing is not supported if the VLAN ID is configured on the aggregated Ethernet interface. This limitation affects the PTX Series Packet Transport Routers only.

    The pps option enables load balancing based on the packets-per-second rate. The default setting is bits-per-second load balancing.

    The scan-interval value configures the length of time for scanning as a multiple of 30 seconds.

    The tolerance value is the limit to the variance in the packet traffic flow to the aggregated Ethernet links in the bundle. You can specify a maximum of 100-percent variance. When the tolerance attribute is not configured, a default value of 20 percent is enabled for adaptive load balancing. A smaller tolerance value balances better bandwidth, but takes a longer convergence time.

    Note:

    The pps and scan-interval optional keywords are supported on PTX Series Packet Transport Routers only.

  • Per-packet random spray—When the adaptive load-balancing solution fails, per-packet random spray acts as a last resort. The per-packet random spray load-balancing solution helps to address traffic imbalance by randomly spraying the packets to the aggregate next hops. This ensures that all the member links of the AE bundle are equally loaded, resulting in packet reordering.

    In addition, per-packet random spray identifies the ingress Packet Forwarding Engine that caused the traffic imbalance and eliminates traffic imbalance that occurs as a result of software errors, except for packet hash.

    To configure per-packet random spray load balancing, include the per-packet statement at the [edit interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance] hierarchy level.

    Note:

    The Per-Packet option for load balancing is not supported on the PTX Series Packet Transport Routers.

The aggregated Ethernet load-balancing solutions are mutually exclusive. When more than one of the load-balancing solutions is configured, the solution that is configured last overrides the previously configured one. You can verify the load-balancing solution being implemented by issuing the show interfaces aex aggregated-ether-options load-balance command.

Topology

In this topology, two aggregated Ethernet bundles - ae0 and ae1 - are configured on the links between the R2 and R3 routers.

Figure 3: Aggregated Ethernet Load BalancingAggregated Ethernet Load Balancing

Configuration

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, and then copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level.

R1

R2

R3

Configuring Adaptive Load Balancing
Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode.

To configure the R2 router:

Note:

Repeat this procedure for the other routers, after modifying the appropriate interface names, addresses, and any other parameters for each router.

  1. Specify the number of aggregated Ethernet interfaces to be created.

  2. Configure the Gigabit Ethernet interface link connecting R2 to R1.

  3. Configure the five member links of the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  4. Configure the eight member links of the ae1 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  5. Enable aggregate Ethernet load balancing on ae0 of R2.

  6. Configure the link speed for the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  7. Configure LACP on the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  8. Configure the interface parameters for the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  9. Enable aggregate Ethernet load balancing on ae1 of R2.

  10. Configure the link speed for the ae1 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  11. Configure LACP on the ae1 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  12. Configure the interface parameters for the ae1 aggregated Ethernet bundle.

  13. Disable selective aggregate Ethernet statistics.

  14. Configure RSVP on all the interfaces of R2 and on the AE bundles.

  15. Configure MPLS on all the interfaces of R2 and on the AE bundles.

  16. Configure IS-IS on all the interfaces of R2 and on the AE bundles.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show chassis, show interfaces, show accounting-options, and show protocols commands. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verifying Adaptive Load Balancing on ae0
Purpose

Verify that packets received on the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle are load-balanced among the five member links.

Action

From operational mode, run the show interfaces ae0 extensive command.

Meaning

The member links of the ae0 aggregated Ethernet bundle are fully utilized with adaptive load balancing.

Release History Table
Release
Description
14.1
Starting with Junos OS Release 14.1, aggregated Ethernet load balancing is enhanced to provide two solutions for resolving genuine traffic imbalance on aggregated Ethernet bundles on PICs or FPCs of PTX Series Packet Transport Routers.
13.3
Starting with Junos OS Release 13.3, aggregated Ethernet load balancing is enhanced to provide two solutions for resolving genuine traffic imbalance on aggregated Ethernet bundles on MICs or MPCs of MX Series routers.
13.2R1
Starting with Junos OS Release 13.2R1, the capability to perform uniform load balancing and also perform rebalancing is introduced on MX Series routers with MPCs, except MPC3Es and MPC4Es.
10.1
Starting with Junos OS Release 10.1, you can also configure the load balancing hash key for Layer 2 traffic to use fields in the Layer 3 and Layer 4 headers using the payload statement.