ZyXEL ZyWALL 5 User Guide - Page 457

CHAPTER 24 Policy Route Screens 24.1 Overview This chapter covers setting and applying policies used for IP routing. Traditionally, routing is based on the destination address only and the ZyWALL takes the shortest path to forward a packet. IP Policy Routing (IPPR) provides a mechanism to override the default routing behavior and alter the packet forwarding based on the policy defined by the network administrator. Policy-based routing is applied to incoming packets on a per interface basis, prior to the normal routing. 24.1.1 What You Can Do in the Policy Route Screens • Use the Policy Route Summary screen (Section 24.2 on page 458) to display the current policy route entries. • Use the Policy Route Edit screen (Section 24.2.1 on page 460) to configure a policy route to override the default (shortest path) routing behavior and forward packets based on the criteria you specify. 24.1.2 What You Need To Know About Policy Route Benefits • Source-Based Routing - Network administrators can use policy-based routing to direct traffic from different users through different connections. • Quality of Service (QoS) - Organizations can differentiate traffic by setting the precedence or ToS (Type of Service) values in the IP header at the periphery of the network to enable the backbone to prioritize traffic. • Cost Savings - IPPR allows organizations to distribute interactive traffic on highbandwidth, high-cost paths while using low-cost paths for batch traffic. • Load Sharing - Network administrators can use IPPR to distribute traffic among multiple paths. ZyWALL 5/35/70 Series User's Guide 457