Authentic Juniper Certification Exam JN0-364 Questions Answers

In the Junos OS architecture,route preference(often referred to as administrative distance in other vendor platforms) is the primary metric used by the Routing Engine to select the "best" path when multiple protocols provide a route to the same destination. Each routing protocol and route type is assigned a default numeric value; the lower the value, the more preferred the route.

According to Juniper Networks technical documentation, anaggregate routeis assigned a default preference of130. Aggregate routes are a form of static-like route used to group specific routes into a single, broader prefix to reduce the size of routing tables and limit the scope of routing updates. They are "protocol-independent" because they are not learned from a dynamic neighbor but are manually defined by the administrator.

To understand where130fits in the hierarchy, it is helpful to compare it with other common Junos preferences:

Directly connected interfaces:0

Static routes:5

OSPF Internal:10

IS-IS Level 1/2:15/18

Aggregate routes: 130

OSPF AS External:150

BGP (Internal and External):170

Generated routes:150

By setting the aggregate route preference to 130, Junos ensures that specific routes learned via IGPs (like OSPF or IS-IS) are preferred over the aggregate. This is essential because an aggregate route is often used as a "catch-all" or a discard route when more specific path information is missing. If the aggregate had a lower preference (like 5), it might override dynamic routing information, leading to suboptimal routing or black-holed traffic.

In the context of theLabel Distribution Protocol (LDP), the method by which a router advertises labels to its neighbors is defined by itsLabel Advertisement Mode. According to Juniper Networks documentation and industry standards (RFC 5036), there are two primary modes:Downstream Unsolicited (DU)andDownstream on Demand (DoD).

InDownstream Unsolicited (DU)mode, which is the default behavior for Junos OS and most service provider implementations, an LSR (Label Switching Router) does not wait for a specific request from its neighbors. Instead, as soon as the LSR learns a prefix through its Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) and establishes an LDP session, it automatically generates a label for that prefix and advertises it to all of its LDP peers. This explains the scenario where labels appear for every loopback address in the IGP as soon as LDP is enabled. DU mode is highly efficient for fast convergence because the labels are already present in the neighbors' databases before they are even needed for traffic forwarding.

By contrast,Downstream on Demand (DoD)requires a router to explicitly request a label for a specific prefix from its next-hop neighbor.Ordered Control (Option B)andIndependent Controlrefer to thetimingof label creation (whether a router waits for the next-hop to provide a label before creating its own), whileConservative Retention (Option A)refers to how a router stores labels it receives but doesn't currently use for forwarding. In the Junos default environment, LDP utilizesDownstream Unsolicitedadvertisement combined withOrdered ControlandLiberal Retentionto ensure a robust and rapidly converging MPLS control plane.

TheHello packetis the most basic, yet most vital, component of the OSPF protocol. It serves as the primary mechanism for neighbor discovery, parameter negotiation, and "keepalive" functionality. Per Juniper Networks' routing documentation, OSPF routers use the Hello protocol to dynamically discover other OSPF-enabled routers on their directly connected segments.

When OSPF is enabled on a Junos interface, the router begins multicasting Hello packets (typically to the224.0.0.5"All OSPF Routers" address). This initiates the neighbor relationship. For two routers to move beyond theInitstate and become neighbors, they must agree on several critical parameters contained within the Hello packet:

Area ID:Routers must be in the same OSPF area.

Authentication:Passwords or keys must match.

Timers:The Hello and Dead intervals must be identical.

Options:Such as Stub area flags.

Beyond the initial "initiation," the Hello packet is used tomaintainthe relationship. By continuously sending these packets at a fixed interval (the Hello interval), a router signals to its peers that it is still functional. If a router stops receiving Hello packets from a neighbor for a duration exceeding theDead Interval, it declares the neighbor "down," flushes the associated LSAs from the database, and triggers a new SPF calculation.

Furthermore, on multi-access networks like Ethernet, the Hello packet is the vehicle for the election of theDesignated Router (DR)andBackup Designated Router (BDR). By exchanging priority values and Router IDs within the Hello packets, the segment can elect a central point of contact to minimize the number of adjacencies required on the wire.