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Use the information in this chapter to understand and configure the types of logical, or virtual, interfaces supported on Cisco routers and access servers. This chapter includes the following configuration instructions and examples:
For examples of configuration tasks, see "Logical Interface Configuration Examples" at the end of this chapter.
For hardware technical descriptions and information about installing interfaces, refer to the hardware installation and maintenance publication for your product. For complete descriptions of the logical interface commands, refer to the "Interface Commands" chapter of the Configuration Fundamentals Command Reference. To locate documentation of other commands that appear in this chapter, use the command reference master index or search online.
You can specify a software-only interface called a loopback interface to emulate an interface. It is supported on all platforms. A loopback interface is a virtual interface that is always up and allows BGP and RSRB sessions to stay up even if the outbound interface is down.
You can use the loopback interface as the termination address for BGP sessions, for RSRB connections, or to establish a Telnet session from the device's console to its auxiliary port when all other interfaces are down. You can also use a loopback interface to configure IPX-PPP on asynchronous interfaces. To do so, you must associate an asynchronous interface with a loopback interface configured to run IPX. In applications where other routers or access servers attempt to reach this loopback interface, you should configure a routing protocol to distribute the subnet assigned to the loopback address.
Packets routed to the loopback interface are rerouted back to the router or access server and processed locally. IP packets routed out the loopback interface but not destined to the loopback interface are dropped. This means that the loopback interface serves as the Null 0 interface also.
To specify a loopback interface and enter interface configuration mode, perform one of the following tasks in global configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Begin interface configuration. | interface loopback number |
| Begin interface configuration for the Cisco 7200 series or the Cisco 7500 series. | interface loopback slot/port |
| Begin interface configuration for the Cisco 7500 series. | interface loopback slot/port-adapter/port |
See the section "Run Interface Loopback Diagnostics" in the "Overview of Interface Configuration" chapter in this publication.
The null interface provides an alternative method of filtering traffic. You can avoid the overhead involved with using access lists by directing undesired network traffic to the null interface.
To specify the null interface, perform the following task in global configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Begin interface configuration. | interface null 0 |
Specify null 0 (or null0) as the interface type and number. The null interface can be used in any command that has an interface type as an argument. The following example configures a null interface for IP route 127.0.0.0:
ip route 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 null 0
Tunneling provides a way to encapsulate arbitrary packets inside of a transport protocol. This feature is implemented as a virtual interface to provide a simple interface for configuration. The tunnel interface is not tied to specific "passenger" or "transport" protocols, but rather, it is an architecture that is designed to provide the services necessary to implement any standard point-to-point encapsulation scheme. Because tunnels are point-to-point links, you must configure a separate tunnel for each link.
Tunneling has the following three primary components:
Figure 34 illustrates IP tunneling terminology and concepts.
To understand the process of tunneling, consider connecting two AppleTalk networks with a non-AppleTalk backbone, such as IP. The relatively high bandwidth consumed by the broadcasting of Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP) data packets can severely hamper the backbone's network performance. This problem can be solved by tunneling AppleTalk through a foreign protocol, such as IP. Tunneling encapsulates an AppleTalk packet inside the foreign protocol packet, which is then sent across the backbone to a destination router. The destination router then de-encapsulates the AppleTalk packet and, if necessary, routes the packet to a normal AppleTalk network. Because the encapsulated AppleTalk packet is sent in a directed manner to a remote IP address, bandwidth usage is greatly reduced. Furthermore, the encapsulated packet benefits from any features normally enjoyed by IP packets, including default routes and load balancing.
The following are several situations where encapsulating traffic in another protocol is useful:
The following are considerations and precautions to observe when you configure tunneling:
%TUN-RECURDOWN Interface Tunnel 0 temporarily disabled due to recursive routing
If you want to configure IP tunneling, you must perform the tasks in the following sections:
The tasks in the following tunnel configuration sections are optional:
For commands that monitor IP tunnels, see the section "Monitor and Maintain the Interface" in the "Overview of Interface Configuration" chapter. For examples of configuring tunnels, see the section "IP Tunneling Examples" at the end of this chapter.
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Begin interface configuration. | interface tunnel number |
| Begin interface configuration for the Cisco 7500 series. | interface tunnel slot/port |
You must specify the tunnel interface's source address by performing the following task in interface configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure the tunnel source. | tunnel source {ip-address | type number} |
You must specify the tunnel interface's destination by performing the following task in interface configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure the tunnel destination. | tunnel destination {hostname | ip-address} |
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure the tunnel mode. | tunnel mode {aurp | cayman | dvmrp | eon | gre ip | nos} |
If you are tunneling AppleTalk, you must use either the AppleTalk Update Routing Protocol (AURP), Cayman or GRE tunneling mode. Cayman tunneling is designed by Cayman Systems and enables routers and access servers to interoperate with Cayman GatorBoxes. You can have Cisco devices at either end of the tunnel, or you can have a GatorBox at one end and Cisco router or access server at the other end. Use Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) mode when a router or access server connects to a mrouted router to run DVMRP over a tunnel. It is required to configure Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) and an IP address on a DVMRP tunnel.
 | Caution Do not configure a Cayman tunnel with an AppleTalk network address. |
Some passenger protocols rely on media checksums to provide data integrity. By default, the tunnel does not guarantee packet integrity. By enabling end-to-end checksums, the Cisco IOS software drops corrupted packets. To enable such checksums on a tunnel interface, perform the following task in interface configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure end-to-end checksumming. | tunnel checksum |
You can optionally enable an ID key for a tunnel interface. This key must be set to the same value on the tunnel endpoints. Tunnel ID keys can be used as a form of weak security to prevent misconfiguration or injection of packets from a foreign source.
The tunnel ID key is available with GRE only.
To configure a tunnel ID key, perform the following task in interface configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure a tunnel identification key. | tunnel key key-number |
You can optionally configure a tunnel interface to drop datagrams that arrive out of order. This is useful when carrying passenger protocols that behave poorly when they receive packets out of order (for example, LLC2-based protocols). This option is available with GRE only.
To use this option, perform the following task in interface configuration mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| Configure a tunnel interface to drop out-of-order datagrams. | tunnel sequence-datagrams |
Increasingly, remote users are accessing networks through dial-up telephone connections. In contrast to local users who can connect directly into the network, remote users must first dial into an access server.
The access server supports a packet tunneling strategy that extends the internetwork--in effect creating a virtual private link for the mobile user. When a user activates asynchronous host mobility, the access server on which the remote user dials into becomes a remote point-of-presence (POP) for the user's home network. Once logged in, users experience a server environment identical to the one that they experience when they connect directly to the "home" access server.
Once the network layer connection is made, data packets are tunneled at the physical and/or data link layer instead of at the protocol layer. In this way, raw data bytes from dial-in users are transported directly to the "home" access server, which processes the protocols.
Figure 37 illustrates the implementation of asynchronous host mobility on an extended internetwork. A mobile user connects to an access server on the internetwork and, by activating asynchronous host mobility, is connected to a "home" access server configured with the appropriate user name. The user sees an authentication dialog or prompt from the "home" system and can proceed as if he or she were connected directly to that device.
The remote user implements asynchronous host mobility by executing the tunnel command in the User EXEC mode. The tunnel command sets up a network layer connection to the specified destination. The access server accepts the connection, attaches it to a virtual terminal (VTY), and runs a command parser capable of running the normal dial-in services. After the connection is established, data is transferred between the modem and network connection with a minimum of interpretations. When communications are complete, the network connection can be closed and terminated from either end.
Refer to the Cisco Access Connection Guide for information about setting up the network layer connection with the tunnel command.
This section provides examples that illustrate configuration of IP tunnels.
The following example shows an IP tunneling configuration with commented (!) explanations:
!Creates the interface interface tunnel 0 !enables IPX on the interface novell network 1e !enables appletalk appletalk cable-range 4001-4001 128 !enables IP ip address 10.1.2.3. 255.255.255.0 !enables DECnet DECnet cost 4 !sets the source address, or interface, for packets tunnel source ethernet 0 !determines where the encapsulated packets are to go tunnel destination 131.108.14.12 !sets the protocol tunnel mode gre !computes a checksum on passenger packets if protocol doesn't already have reliable !checksum tunnel checksum needed !sets the id key tunnel key 42 !set to drop out of order packets tunnel sequence-datagrams
Figure 38 is an example of connecting multiprotocol subnetworks across a single-protocol backbone. The configurations of Router A and Router B follow.
interface ethernet 0 description physics department AppleTalk lan appletalk cable-range 4001-4001 32 ! interface fddi 0 description connection to campus backbone ip address 36.0.8.108 255.255.255.0 interface tunnel 0 tunnel source fddi 0 tunnel destination 36.0.21.20 appletalk cable-range 5313-5313 1
interface ethernet 0 description chemistry department appletalk lan appletalk cable-range 9458-9458 3 ! interface fddi 0 description connection to campus backbone ip address 36.0.21.20 255.255.255.0 interface tunnel 0 tunnel source fddi 0 tunnel destination 36.0.8.108 appletalk cable-range 5313-5313 2
Figure 39 is an example of routing a private IP network and a Novell network across a public service provider.
interface ethernet 0 description boston office ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0 novell network 1e ! interface serial 0 description connection to NEARnet ip address 192.13.2.1 255.255.255.0 ! interface tunnel 0 tunnel source serial 0 tunnel destination 131.108.5.2 ip address 10.1.2.1 255.255.255.0 novell network 1f
interface ethernet 0 description menlo park office ip address 10.1.3.1 255.255.255.0 novell network 31 ! interface serial 4 description connection to BARRnet ip address 131.108.5.2 255.255.255.0 ! interface tunnel 0 tunnel source serial 4 tunnel destination 192.13.2.1 ip address 10.1.2.2 255.255.255.0 novell network 1f
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