Overview of Static Routing

Static routes are manually configured entries in the existing IPv6 routing table. 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

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