To Cisco Express Forwarding The definition of CEF, from my friends at WikiPedia: | “CEF is an advanced layer 3 switching technology used mainly in Ie hetworks or the Internet to enhance the overall network performance.” Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? “layer 3 switching”? Well, really it's layer 3 packet s 's what CEF (and routing) are all about. CEF has nothing to do witt itching, which is a pure L2 operation, With that clear, let’s check out the that definition. though CEF is a Cisco proprietary protocol, other vendors of multi-layer gh-capacity routers offer a similar functionality where layer 3 switching 6 one in hardware (in an ASIC) instead of by software and the (central) Cf 10k ee you are pe correct. CEF shows up on rut So it's a topic for both SWITCH and ROUTE,ee eh rue guring protocols, addresses, or service the management plane. ,CEF’s two main components, the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) ; djacency Table (AT), are both part of the data plane. The FIB is deriv TP routing table. (When you use clear ip route * to clear the IP routing tak _ dynamically learned entries, you're actually clearing both the IP and FIB tab erally on by default, but it never hurts to check with show jp cef. Fe first hint CEF may not be on Rlfshow ip cet “SCEF not running ' ig) #ip voet show ip cefTrying R1 (100.1.1.1, 2001)... Open A POAC MRC eg eA anaes Da ps ry is kc ne ee clay oe ON 172.12.123.2 ati pte eee se reid Far ib es) rt bt tarred SrESrEreU ers Pe 2 ated PTE YE} +12,123.3/32 Er 123. Seriali/o Berge re PLT Te 7] eSeeaeriere vers sae Sieeer sere E ys pees) heaeriere weyers Ste aera E Ee? EEE SUZIerIBTEDE Er] SUC se aR PEE) Bry 172.12.123-255/32 receive Peay cr POETS roca PLS cid 255.255.255.255/32 receive Stans eae eS Ree ee iceiar ora oem 16 13:53:46.507: XSYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console kao aan) at) Cad Bc tad oe a EA Co Cea ao kU eae Pea a Peet172.12,123.2 attached FastEthernet0/0 receive 30.1.1.1/32 receive 30.1.1.5/32 30.1.1.5 FastEthernet0/0 30.1.1.255/32 receive 55.5.5.0/24 172.12 Serial1/0 (truncated, there’s t ' 3 of thial Not exactly the IP routing table we've come to know! The FIB of a Cisco device keeps the usual routing info - destination networks, masks, n addresses, exit interfaces - just in a different format than the IP routing tal outing info in the FIB is updated dynamically as change notifications a the L3 engine TYou can also verify CEF operation with show ip interface, a rather ful command. The CEF info is about 60% of the way down in the o! saat focwaiding is disabled.cast reserved groups joined: 224.0.0.9 Outgoing access list is not set Inbound access list is not set Proxy ARP is enabled Local Proxy ARP is disabled Security level is default Split horizon is disabled ICMP redirects are always sent ICMP unreachables are always sent ICMP mask replios are ‘nover sent IP fast awitching is enabled IP fast awitching on the sane interface is enabled IP Flow switching is disabled IP CEF switching is enabled IP CEF Fast switching turbo vector TP multicast fact switching is enabled (truncated) 12 information is kept in the Adjacency Table (AT), and you car adjacency and show adjacency detail lahow adjacency ol Interface Adduaae Seriali/t peantopoany (ty1p Fastethernet0/0 IP Serial1/0 IP Seriall/0 Rlfshow adjacency detail Protocol Interface IP Seriall/1 30.2.1,5(57 am 172.12.123.3 (5) 172.12.123-2 (13) Address point2peint (5) 9 packets, 1000800 0 bytes CRF expires refresh 1cA19900) ER-MAB, 0 bytes 3(5). (incompilgs 0 bytesEpoch: 0 172.12.123.3(5) (incompl 0 packets, 0 bytes FR-MAP "never Epoch: 0 riall/o 172.12.123.2(13) 0 packets, 0 bytes 1cA10800 FR-MAP never Epoch: 0 "Let's take a closer look at 2.2.2.0 /24 and 2.2.2.0 /24. Thankfully, we show ip cef output by interface or network number. sekiall/0 Addiess + poiatane! 30.1, 18 5) of :by interface or network number. 4p cef 2.2.2.0 -0/24, version 17, epoch 0, cached adjacency 172.12.123:! Packets, 0 bytes Via 172.12.123.2, Seriall/0, 0 dependencies next hop 172.12.123.2, Seriall/0 valid cached adjacency RI show adjacen: Protocol Ini 1P Ser IP Paste IP s : ‘ ) (ncomplete) yea Sezial a3) * a the next hop, and that a The path to 2.2.2.0 uses mapped to Serial1/0 in the AT incomplete) next to 172.12.123.3: that's giving us this F: nformation, I created a frame biem is,there is no 172.12.123.3 ify Sure you noticed the (/ 1B and AT 123.3 on Ri. Pro! (incomplete) in the AT table, something's for that address, since the AT is detived from entry gives you 2Pehow ip cef 172.12-123.9 i2.123-3/32, version 1? © packets, 0 bytes Mia 172.12-123-3, Seriall/0. Beeinop a 72¢12-123-3- seriatl/? | invalid cached adjacency 1's default route in the CEF table = 0 will always appear in the AT tab p” that counts. Ri is |) epoch 0, cached adjacency 172% 0 dependen ou can also spot a route! r ‘fix 0.0.0.0/ ler “next hol