Introduction 1-21
Switch Software Description
Table 1-1 Routing Group Configuration Example
Cost-Based Connection Routing
Release 9.1 includes a cost-based route selection method to Cisco StrataCom’s standard AutoRoute.
This feature is referred to as cost-based AutoRoute. In standard AutoRoute, the path with the fewest
number of hops to the destination node is chosen as the best route. The new cost-based route
selection uses an administrative trunk cost routing metric. The path with the lowest total trunk cost
is chosen as the best route. Cost-based route selection is based on Dijkstra’s Shortest Path Algorithm,
which is widely used in network routing environments. You can use cost-based route selection (that
is, cost-based AutoRoute) to give preference to slower privately owned trunks over faster public
trunks which charge based on usage time. This gives network operators more control over the
usability of their network trunks, while providing a more standard algorithm for route selection.
Major Features of Cost-Based AutoRoute
The following list gives a short description of the major functional elements of Cost-Based Route
Selection.
• Enabling Cost-Based Route Selection–cost-based route selection is selectively enabled by the
user as the route selection algorithm per node. The feature is not a chargeable feature and does
not require special password access. The default algorithm is the hop-based algorithm.
cost-based route selection can be enabled or disabled at any time.
• Configuring Trunk Cost–A trunk cost is assigned by the user to each trunk (physical and virtual)
in the network. One cost is assigned per trunk - no separate costs are used for different connection
or service types. The valid range of trunk costs is 1 (lowest cost) to 50 (highest cost). A trunk has
a default cost of 10 upon activation. The cost of a trunk can be changed before or after the trunk
has been added to the network topology.
The cost can also be changed after connections have been routed over the trunk. Such a change
does not initiate automatic connection rerouting, nor does it cause any outage to the routed
connections. If the new trunk cost causes the allowable route cost for any connections to be
exceeded, the connections must be manually rerouted to avoid the trunk. This avoids large-scale
simultaneous network-wide rerouting and gives the user control over the connection reroute
outage.
Routing
group
Connection
cell loading
00-59
160-69
270-79
380-89
490-99
5101-109
6110-119
7120-129
8130-139
9 140 and up
