[ixpmanager] BIRD / Route Server: Load-balancing traffic for member with multiple connections

[Salvador Bertenbreiter]

Hi community,

I hope you are doing well.

We have a case involving a member with two separate connections to the
peering LAN. Each connection has its own IP address, and both sessions are
established with our Route Server.

The member is concerned because all downstream traffic, from their
perspective, is currently being received through only one of the two
connections.

I checked the Looking Glass, and both connections are announcing the same
prefixes with the same AS-PATH. However, BIRD consistently selects all
prefixes as primary via only one of the two sessions.

The member mentioned that they are not able to announce more-specific
prefixes from one router and less-specific prefixes from the other router,
which would otherwise be a possible way to influence traffic distribution.

I was wondering if there is any recommended way to achieve some form of
load-balancing in this scenario. Specifically:

   1. Is it possible for the Route Server / BIRD to "load-balance" between
   two equivalent next-hops for the same prefix, so that downstream traffic
   towards the member can be distributed across both connections?
   2. If ECMP is not supported or not recommended in this context, is there
   a way in IXP Manager or BIRD to influence which session is preferred? For
   example, can we assign a higher local preference to one of the member’s
   sessions so that the Route Server selects that connection as the primary
   next-hop?
   3. More generally, what would be the recommended operational approach
   for handling members with multiple connections announcing the same prefixes
   to the Route Server?

Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Salvador Bertenbreiter
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