Overview of Static Routing

The IP route table can receive routes from several sources, including static routes. Other route sources include directly connected networks, RIP, OSPF, and BGP4 protocols.

Static routes can be used to specify desired routes, backup routes, or routes of last resort. Static routing can help provide load balancing and can use routing information learned from other protocols.

In setting up static routes, you can specify several types of destinations:

• Destination network, using an IP address and network mask or prefix length
• Default network route
• Next-hop router
• Next-hop tunnel gateway
• Next-hop network protocol type
• Ethernet interface, typically used for directly attached destination networks
• Virtual interface
• Null interface

You can influence the preference a route is given in the following ways:

• Setting a route metric higher than the default metric
• Giving the route an administrative distance
• Specifying a route tag for use with a route map

Static routes can be configured to serve as any of the following:

• Default routes
• Primary routes
• Backup routes
• Null routes for intentionally dropping traffic when the desired connection fails
• Alternative routes to the same destination to help load balance traffic