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•  Route summarization 
Route summarization can reduce the BGP routing table size by advertising summary routes rather 
than more specific routes. 
The system supports both manual and automatic route summarization. Manual route 
summarization allows you to determine the attribute of a summary route and whether to advertise 
more specific routes. 
•  Route dampening 
Route frapping (a route comes up and disappears in the routing table frequently) causes BGP to 
send many routing updates. It can consume too many resources and affect other operations. 
In most cases, BGP runs in complex networks where route changes are more frequent. To solve the 
problem caused by route flapping, you can use BGP route dampening to suppress unstable routes.  
BGP route dampening uses a penalty value to judge the stability of a route. The bigger the value, 
the less stable the route. Each time a route state change (from reachable to unreachable) occurs, 
or a reachable route's attribute changes, BGP adds a penalty value (1000, which is a fixed 
number and cannot be changed) to the route. When the penalty value of the route exceeds the 
suppress value, the route is suppressed and cannot become the optimal route. When the penalty 
value reaches the upper limit, no penalty value is added.  
If the suppressed route does not flap, its penalty value gradually decreases to half of the suppress 
value after a period of time. This period is called "Half-life." When the value decreases to the 
reusable threshold value, the route is usable again. 
Figure 52 BGP route dampening 
 
 
•  Peer group 
You can organize BGP peers with the same attributes into a group to simplify their configurations. 
When a peer joins the peer group, the peer obtains the same configuration as the peer group. If 
the configuration of the peer group is changed, the configuration of group members is changed. 
•  Community 
You can apply a community list or an extended community list to a routing policy for route control. 
For more information, see "BGP path attributes."
 
•  Route reflector 
Suppress 
threshold
Reusable 
threshold
Penalty 
value
Time
Half-life
Suppress time