BGP Route Preference

General
1

Hi,

I have a question regarding BGP route preference on the Peplink Balance 1350 (firmware 8.4.0 build 5251).

I have two possible topologies, and in both cases I want Router1 to be preferred and Router2 to be used as the backup.

  1. eBGP
  • Router1 advertises 192.168.0.0/16 to the Peplink.
  • Router2 also advertises 192.168.0.0/16 to the Peplink.

Does the Peplink honor AS-path prepending received from a remote eBGP neighbor when selecting between routes?

For example, if Router2 prepends its AS several times, will the Peplink prefer the route received from Router1 because it has the shorter AS path?

  1. iBGP

If Router1 and Router2 are configured as iBGP neighbors:

Does the Peplink honor the Local Preference attribute received from an iBGP neighbor when selecting between multiple routes?

For example, if Router1 advertises 192.168.0.0/16 with Local Preference 200 and Router2 advertises the same route with Local Preference 100, will the Peplink prefer Router1?

  1. Peplink BGP configuration options

I would also like to clarify the exact meaning of the BGP options in the Peplink configuration.

  • The Local Preference option under the neighbor configuration: does this set the Local Preference of routes received from that neighbor, or does it set the Local Preference of routes advertised by the Peplink to that neighbor?

  • The AS Path Prepending option under the neighbor configuration: does this modify the AS path of routes advertised by the Peplink to that neighbor?

In other words, are these settings intended to control the Peplink’s route selection for incoming routes, or are they primarily used to influence how the Peplink’s routes are treated by its BGP neighbors?

I am specifically looking for confirmation of how to achieve:

Router1 = preferred path
Router2 = backup path

using eBGP with AS-path prepending and iBGP with Local Preference.

Thanks!