The Access Pseudowire Redundancy feature allows you to configure a backup pseudowire under the bridge domain. When the primary pseudowire fails, the provider edge (PE) router switches to the backup pseudowire. The primary pseudowire resumes operation after it becomes functional. The primary pseudowire fails when the PE router fails or when there is a network outage.

See .

The EVPN E-Tree using RT constraints feature enables you to configure BGP route target (RT) import and export policies for an attachment circuit (AC). This feature allows you to define communication between the leaf and root nodes. The provider edge (PE) nodes can receive L2 traffic either from the attachment circuit (AC) of a bridge domain (BD) or from the remote PE node. For a given BD, L2 communication can only happen from root to leaf and leaf to root nodes. This feature does not allow any L2 communication between the ACs of two or more leafs.

This feature provides the following benefits:

• Achieve efficiency of the BGP MAC routes scale

• Reduce the consumption of hardware resources

• Utilize the link bandwidth efficiently

See EVPN E-Tree Using RT Constraints.

The command, etree rt-leaf is introduced.

The Cisco IOS XR 7.1.2 Release introduces Hardware based timestamp using TWAMP. This feature provides greater accuracy than other time synchronization protocols which enables the service providers to achieve microsecond precision and better performance at scale.

See NCS 540 Content link.

Y.1564 or Ethernet Service Activation (or performance test methodology) is a testing procedure which tests service turn-up, installation and troubleshooting of Ethernet-based services.

Y.1564 allows simultaneous testing of multiple Ethernet services and measures. It validates the different service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure the service meets guaranteed performance settings in a controlled test time. It helps to ensure all the services carried by the network meet the SLA objectives at the maximum committed rate proving that under maximum load, the network devices and paths can support the traffic as designed, even under stress.

See NCS 540 Content Link.

This feature allows MPLS static forwarding over a single-pass GRE tunnel at line rate. One use case is for sending incoming customer traffic over the GRE tunnel, addressed to an anycast virtual IP address (VIP) destination shared by a set of load balancing servers.

See MPLS Over Single-Pass GRE Tunnels.

The PCE Support for MPLS-TE LSPs feature allows Cisco's SR-PCE to act as a Path Computation Element (PCE) for MPLS Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths (MPLS-TE LSPs).

See NCS 540 Content Link.

Applicable only to Cisco N540-24Z8Q2C-SYS, N540X-ACC-SYS, and N540-ACC-SYS router variants.

This feature introduces support for Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) Light (RFC5357) for link delay and SR policy delay measurement. TWAMP Light adds two-way or round-trip measurement capabilities.

Network performance data such as packet loss, delay and delay variation, and bandwidth utilization is a critical measure for Traffic Engineering (TE). This data provides service providers the characteristics of their networks for performance evaluation that is required to ensure the Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The performance measurement and delay variation feature allows you to measure those metrics and advertise them through IGP extensions as extended TE metrics.

See 540.

You must follow these guidelines while enabling FIPS mode:

• You must configure the session with a FIPS-approved cryptographic algorithm. A session configured with non-approved cryptographic algorithm for FIPS (such as, MD5 and HMAC-MD5) does not work. This is applicable for OSPF, BGP, RSVP, ISIS, or any application using key chain with non-approved cryptographic algorithm, and only for FIPS mode (that is, when crypto fips-mode command is configured).

• If you are using any HMAC-SHA algorithm for a session, then you must ensure that the configured key-string has a minimum length of 14 characters. Otherwise, the session goes down. This is applicable only for FIPS mode.

• If you try to execute the telnet configuration on a system where the FIPS mode is already enabled, then the system rejects the telnet configuration.

• If telnet configuration already exists on the system, and if FIPS mode is enabled later, then the system rejects the telnet connection. But, it does not affect the telnet configuration as such.

• It is recommended to configure the crypto fips-mode command first, followed by the FIPS-related commands in a separate commit. The list of commands related to FIPS with non-approved cryptographic algorithms are:

  • key chain key-chain-name key key-id cryptographic-algorithm MD5

  • key chain key-chain-name key key-id cryptographic-algorithm HMAC-MD5

  • router ospfv3 1 authentication ipsec spi 256 md5 md5-value

  • router ospfv3 1 encryption ipsec spi 256 esp des des-value

  • router ospfv3 1 encryption ipsec spi 256 esp des des-value authentication md5 md5-value

  • snmp-server user username usergroup-name v3 auth md5 priv des56

  • ssh server algorithms key-exchange diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

  • telnet vrf default ipv4 server max-servers server-limit

Cisco IOS XR Release 7.1.2 introduces the command logging format bsd which enables the router to send system log messages to a remote server in BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) format. This enables systems that are dependent on the BSD format to correctly interpret the log message.

The command, is introduced.

Following caveat is applicable to Cisco N540-24Z8Q2C-SYS, N540X-ACC-SYS, N540-ACC-SYS, N540-28Z4C-SYS-A/D, N540-12Z20G-SYS-A/D, N540X-12Z16G-SYS-A/D, and N540X-16Z4G8Q2C-A/D variants.

This table lists the Cisco IOS XR Software feature set matrix (packages) with associated filenames.

This table lists the Cisco IOS XR Software feature set matrix (packages) with associated filenames.

Log in to the router and enter the show version command on the Cisco N540-24Z8Q2C-SYS, N540X-ACC-SYS, and N540-ACC-SYS variants:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ROUTER#show version 

Mon Aug 31 03:48:49.697 UTC
Cisco IOS XR Software, Version 7.1.2
Copyright (c) 2013-2020 by Cisco Systems, Inc.

Build Information:
 Built By     : ahoang
 Built On     : Sat Aug 29 13:26:41 PDT 2020
 Built Host   : iox-lnx-073
 Workspace    : /auto/srcarchive13/prod/7.1.2/ncs540/ws
 Version      : 7.1.2
 Location     : /opt/cisco/XR/packages/
 Label        : 7.1.2

cisco NCS-540 () processor
System uptime is 19 hours 56 minutes

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:PE2#admin
Mon Aug 31 03:49:42.565 UTC
Last login: Fri Aug 28 18:15:38 2020 from 192.0.0.4

netconf connected from 192.0.0.4 using ssh on sysadmin-vm:0_RP0

Log in to the router and enter the show version command on the Cisco N540-28Z4C-SYS-A/D, N540X-16Z4G8Q2C-A/D, N540-12Z20G-SYS-A/D, and N540X-12Z16G-SYS-A/D variants:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ROUTER#show version 

Mon Aug 31 03:58:49.963 UTC
Cisco IOS XR Software, Version 7.1.2 LNT
Copyright (c) 2013-2020 by Cisco Systems, Inc.

Build Information:
 Built By     : ahoang
 Built On     : Sat Aug 29 20:04:27 UTC 2020
 Build Host   : iox-lnx-069
 Workspace    : /auto/srcarchive13/prod/7.1.2/ncs540l/ws
 Version      : 7.1.2
 Label        : 7.1.2

cisco NCS540L (C3708 @ 1.70GHz)
System uptime is 11 hours, 34 minutes

Use the show command in EXEC mode to view the hardware components with their current FPD version and status. The status of the hardware must be CURRENT; Running and Programed version must be the same.

Log in to the router and enter the show hw-module fpd commands on the Cisco N540-24Z8Q2C-SYS, N540X-ACC-SYS, and N540-ACC-SYS variants:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ROUTER#show hw-module fpd  

Mon Aug  31 03:49:54.194 UTC+00:00
                                                                   FPD Versions
                                                                ===============
Location  Card type         HWver FPD device       ATR Status   Run    Programd
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0/RP0     N540-ACC-SYS      1.0   Bootloader           CURRENT    1.13    1.13  
0/RP0     N540-ACC-SYS      1.0   CPU-IOFPGA           CURRENT    0.07    0.07  
0/RP0     N540-ACC-SYS      1.0   MB-IOFPGA            CURRENT    0.20    0.20  
sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# 

Log in to the router and enter the show hw-module fpd commands on the Cisco N540-28Z4C-SYS-A/D, N540-12Z20G-SYS-A/D, N540X-12Z16G-SYS-A/D, and N540X-16Z4G8Q2C-A/D variants:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ROUTER#show hw-module fpd 

Mon Aug 31 03:59:28.823 UTC

Attribute codes: B golden, P protect, S secure
                                                               FPD Versions
                                                               =================
Location   Card type             HWver FPD device       ATR Status   Running Programd  Reload Loc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   IoFpga               CURRENT    2.03    2.03         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   IoFpgaGolden     B   NEED UPGD          1.29         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   Primary-BIOS      S  CURRENT    1.14    1.14         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   StdbyFpga         S  CURRENT    0.40    0.40         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   StdbyFpgaGolden  BS  NEED UPGD          0.00         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   TamFw             S  CURRENT    4.11    4.11         0/RP0
0/RP0/CPU0 N540-28Z4C-SYS-A      0.1   TamFwGolden      BS  NEED UPGD          0.00         0/RP0