252 CHAPTER 26: S TATIC ROUTING CONFIGURATIONApplicationEnvironment of StaticRoutingBefore configuring a static route, you need to know the following concepts:1 Destination address and maskIn the ip route-static command, an IPv4 address is in dotted decimal format anda mask can be either in dotted decimal format or in the form of mask length (thedigits of consecutive 1s in the mask).2 Output interface and next hop addressWhile configuring a static route, you can specify either the output interface or thenext hop address depending on the specific occasion. The next hop address cannot be a local interface IP address; otherwise, the route configuration will not takeeffect.In fact, all the route entries must have a next hop address. When forwarding apacket, a router first searches the routing table for the route to the destinationaddress of the packet. The system can find the corresponding link layer addressand forward the packet only after the next hop address is specified.When specifying the output interface, note that:■ If the output interface is a NULL 0 interface, there is no need to configure thenext hop address.■ You are not recommended to specify a broadcast interface (such as VLANinterface) as the output interface, because a broadcast interface may havemultiple next hops. If you have to do so, you must specify the correspondingnext hop for the output interface.■ Other attributesYou can configure different preferences for different static routes so that routemanagement policies can be applied more flexibly. For example, specifying thesame preference for different routes to the same destination enables load sharing,while specifying different preferences for these routes enables route backup.Configuring a StaticRouteConfigurationPrerequisitesBefore configuring a static route, you need to configure the IP addresses forrelated interfaces.Configuration Procedure Follow these steps to configure a static route:To do… Use the command… RemarksEnter system view system-view -
