Cisco IOS Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Fast Switching and CEF

Problem

You want to use the most efficient mechanism in the router to switch the packets.

Solution

As we discuss in Appendix B, one of the most important things you can do to improve router performance, and consequently network performance, is to ensure that you are using the best packet switching algorithm. All Cisco routers support Fast Switching, and it is enabled by default. However, some types of configurations require that it be disabled. The following example shows how to turn Fast Switching back on if it has been disabled:

Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0
Router(config-if)#ip route-cache
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#end
Router#

If you are using policies, including policies for Class-based QoS, you also need to configure Fast Switching to handle them, using the ip route-cache policy command:

Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0
Router(config-if)#ip route-cache policy
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#end
Router#

CEF, on the other hand, is not enabled by default. Unlike Fast Switching, which is enabled separately for each interface, you have to enable CEF globally for the entire router, as well as on each interface:

Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#ip cef
Router(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0 ...