TMS zl Management and Configuration Guide ST.1.2.100916
9-7
Routing
Static Routing
For network routes, you should typically make the destination address as
general as possible for the gateway address to still be valid for all matching
packets. For example, instead of configuring separate routes to network
10.1.3.0/24 and network 10.1.2.0/24 on the TMS zl Module shown in
Figure 9-1, you could enter a route to the entire 10.1.0.0/16 network
through Router A. Router A knows more specific routes and forwards the
traffic toward the correct destination.
■ Gateway Address
The gateway address is the IP address for the router that is the next hop
toward the destination. For example, for the TMS zl Module in Figure 9-
1, Router A is the next hop to the network that is directly connected to
Router B.
■ Metric
The metric is a value between 0and255 that indicates the distance to the
destination address or the cost of the route. Generally, the higher the
metric, the further to the destination. If two routes have the same desti-
nation and the same administrative distance, the route with the lower
metric is preferred. With static routes, you set the metric manually, so you
can set the cost however you want to force the module to prefer the route
that you want it to prefer.
■ Distance
Routers use administrative distance to select between two or more routes
to the same destination that have been obtained by different route discov-
ery methods. (Route discovery methods include routing protocols, static
routes, or directly connected routes.) Every routing protocol has an
administrative distance associated with it. For example, static routes
typically have an administrative distance of 1. Routers use administrative
distance to determine the reliability of a route: the lower the administra-
tive distance, the more reliable the route. From among routes to the same
destination, a router selects only the route with the lowest administrative
distance for the routing table. If two routes have the same lowest admin-
istrative distance, the router selects the route with the lower metric.
To view your current static routes, click Network > Routing > Static Routes.
Figure 9-2. Network > Routing > Static Routes Window