350-401 Question 137
Single answerA network engineer is designing a routing solution for a branch office that needs to connect to multiple data centers. Each data center advertises overlapping IP subnets to the branch office. The engineer configures the branch router with two static routes for the same destination subnet, pointing to different next-hop IP addresses. Which Cisco technology should the engineer implement to ensure traffic is balanced across both paths?
- A
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP)
- B
Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
- C
Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
- D
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
To ensure traffic is balanced across both paths, the engineer needs to use Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP). ECMP allows the router to efficiently distribute traffic across multiple next-hop IP addresses for routes with identical metrics. This is the most appropriate solution for the given scenario.
- A. Correct.
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) is a Layer 3 routing feature that allows a router to load-balance traffic across multiple paths with equal cost to the same destination.
- B. Incorrect.
Policy-Based Routing (PBR) allows traffic to be forwarded based on policies rather than the routing table, but it doesn't inherently offer load balancing for equal-cost paths.
- C. Incorrect.
Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) is a Layer 3 redundancy protocol used to provide a backup gateway for hosts, not for load-balancing traffic across multiple paths.
- D. Incorrect.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is a Layer 3 feature used for fast failure detection, but it is not involved in load balancing.