[c-nsp] C65K: Any significant correlation between import filter route-map complexity and BGP Router process utilization?

[Oliver Boehmer (oboehmer)]

> Hi list,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone here has been able to establish any
real-world
> correlation between the relative complexity of a BGP import filter (a
route-
> map with various match clauses which reference various other
prefix/AS-path
> lists to set metric/preference attributes on incoming prefixes) and
any
> related impact to RP CPU? (specifically, the BGP Router process)
> 
> We make fairly extensive use of import route-map logic for outbound
traffic-
> engineering purposes between our various transit providers, and I'm
trying
> to determine if this practice is responsible for driving up RP CPU
> utilization significantly higher than would otherwise be the case. I
believe
> that route-maps are (largely?) processed in hardware on the 65K
platform
> (S720-3BXL), but nevertheless, logically, it seems to me that since
each
> received prefix must pass through the route-map logic until it reaches
a
> match clause that matches and then sets the associated attributes, I
can't
> help but think the impact on CPU can't plausibly be 'zero'.

You are talking about BGP routing policy statements, which are
implemented on the CPU, not in hardware (this is control plane, not fwd
plane). So there is a direct correlation between RP CPU load and routing
policy complexity.

I can't tell if your policy can be optimized, but you are already
matching on prefix list (which is generally causing less CPU cycles for
lookup). 
Not sure if "match as-path 41" is needed in the last statement (seq 20,
which looks like a catch-all), if you do want to drop some as-paths
there, you could consider moving the drop logic to the top, and don't
use any "match" in the last clause. Not sure if this changes the cpu
load noticeable..

[...]
> Any thoughts on if this seems excessive, or if you think this should
or
> should not significantly contribute to overly 'elevated' CPU
consumption by
> the BGP router process?

I don't think your policy is excessive.

	oli