Kaspersky SD-WAN

Connectivity Fault Management (CFM)

The Connectivity Fault Management (hereinafter also CFM) functionality allows detecting unavailable links between CPE devices. When CFM is enabled, the CPE device sends Continuity Check Message (CCM) control packets over its links at the specified intervals, and listens for response control packets on opposite-direction links. If response control packets do not arrive, the CPE device considers the link unavailable and starts transmitting traffic over a randomly selected available link.

The response timeout is equal to the control packet sending interval times 3.5. The time it takes to switch a CPE device over to a new connection when no response packets are received is equal to the control packet sending interval multiplied by a number in the range from 3.5 to 7. For example, if you specified 300 milliseconds as the time interval for sending control packets, the response timeout is 1.05 seconds, and the time it takes to switch the CPE device to a new link is 1.05 to 2.1 seconds.

You can enable CFM on a CPE device or link:

  • A CPE device with CFM enabled sends control packets over all of its links, including new links that will be established in the future. If you specify different time intervals for sending control packages on CPE devices, the largest of the specified time intervals is used. For example, if you specified 300 milliseconds as the control packet interval on CPE 1, and 1 second on CPE 2, the control packet interval is 1 second.

    When CFM is enabled on one CPE device and disabled on the other CPE device, the CPE device with CFM enabled takes precedence. In this case, CPE devices send control packets to each other over all of their links.

  • When CFM is enabled for a link, the CPE device sends control packets over that link only. When you enable CFM for a link, you must also enable CFM on the opposite-direction link. The time interval for sending control packets set for the link overrides the time intervals for sending control packets set on CPE devices. For example, if you specified 300 milliseconds as the control packet interval on CPE 1, 1 second on CPE 2, and 10 seconds on the link between CPE 1 and CPE 2, the resulting time interval for sending control packets is 10 seconds.

For example, you can enable CFM on a CPE device and disable CFM on one of the links of that CPE device. In this case, the CPE device sends control packets over all its links, except for the link on which CFM is disabled. By default, CFM is disabled on CPE devices and links.

In this section

Enabling CFM on a CPE device

Enabling CFM on a link