Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.2 Traffic Engineering and Optimization

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Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.2 Traffic Engineering and Optimization

Create an ODN template

Updated: August 4, 2025

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Learn how to create an On-Demand Next-hop (ODN) template to automate the dynamic provisioning of traffic-engineered paths in SR-TE environments.

SR-TE ODN integrates segment routing with on-demand traffic engineering, allowing the network to dynamically create traffic-engineered paths as needed. You can configure an ODN template for each color that represents a specific SLA or traffic requirement. This setup enables a service head-end router to automatically generate an SR-TE policy for a BGP next-hop whenever necessary. The head-end is configured with an ODN template linked to a specific color to optimize the traffic path when a prefix with that color is detected.

Complete the steps to create an ODN template.

Procedure

1.

From the main menu, choose Services & Traffic Engineering > Provisioning (NSO) > SR-TE > ODN-Template.
2.

Click Add icon and enter the unique name for the ODN template. Click Continue.
3.

To apply a pre-configured custom template, click Add icon and enter its name. Crosswork Network Controller displays the variables that can be substituted or parameterized as defined in the template. Under Iteration, specify the number of times to apply the custom-template.
4.

In the head-end area, specify the list of source routers:

  1. In the name field, enter the source device or the router where the tunnel begins. Click Continue.

  2. To apply a pre-configured custom template, click Add icon and enter its name. Crosswork Network Controller displays the variables that can be substituted or parameterized as defined in the template. Under Iteration, specify the number of times to apply the custom-template.
5.

Specify these policy options:

  1. In the maximum-sid-depth field, enter the maximum SID depth supported by the router.

  2. In the pce-group field, enter the PCE group to assign to the template.

  3. For color, specify an SR policy color to identify the traffic.

  4. In the bandwidth field enter the requested bandwidth value in kbps.

  5. Enter the source-address of the policy.
6.

In the SRv6 area:

  1. in the locator-name field, enter the required SRv6 node. The locator name should match what is configured on the router.

  2. from the behavior list, choose how IPv6 packets should be treated or processed by the network.

  3. from the binding-sid-type list, choose the type of binding segment ID.
7.

In the performance-measurement area, create delay and liveness profiles.

  • Delay profile - Allows scheduling probes and configuring metric advertisement parameters. You can configure different profiles for different types of delay measurements. To enable performance measurement, you require a catalog of profiles.
  • Liveness profile - Allows network to confirm that a specific path, segment, or node is operational and capable of forwarding packets. These checks maintain network availability and reliability.

If you choose

Complete these steps

delay

  1. In the profile field, enter the delay profile name.

  2. In the logging area, toggle Enable logging to enable system logging for delay measurement.

  3. Check delay-exceeded to log messages in syslog when the delay exceeds the threshold.

liveness

  1. In the profile field, enter the liveness profile name.

  2. From the invalidation-action list, select the action to be taken when Performance Management liveness session is invalidated. Selecting none results in no action being taken. If logging is enabled, the failure is logged, but the SR Policy operational state remains unchanged. down (default) means the candidate path is immediately deactivated.

  3. In the logging area, toggle Enable logging to enable system logging for liveness detection.

  4. Check session-state-change to log messages in syslog when the state of the session changes.

To return packets to head-end, in the reverse-path-label field, enter the MPLS label to be used for the reverse path.
8.

In the dynamic area, define settings for dynamic path computation.

  1. Select pce to delegate dynamic path computation to PCE.

  2. In the flex-alg field, enter the SID algorithm constraint. This setting allows operators to customize IGP shortest path computation based on their needs. When a constraint, such as SRLG exclusion is applied, any links belonging to the specified excluded SRLGs will be automatically filtered out from the IGP routing calculations. Alternate paths are optimized by considering only the available links, thereby enhancing network resilience and service availability. For more information, see Configure and visualize flexible algorithm SRLG exclusion.

  3. In the metric-type list, choose the metric for use in path computation.

  4. In the metric-margin area, specify the absolute value or relative percent to configures the on-demand dynamic path metric margin.

  5. The affinity area specifies a relationship between policy path and link colors. SR-TE finds a path that includes or excludes links that have specific colors or combinations of colors. To compute the path with link color constraints, create a rulewith the required action and color.

  6. The segments area specifies an SID constraint to find a path with that SID. Enter an SID algorithm number to configure path segment constraints.

  7. Select disjoint-path to compute a path that is disjoint from another path in the same disjoint-group. The disjoint paths can originate from the same head-end or different head-ends.

    1. From the type list, select the type of disjoint path.

    2. In the group-id field, enter the group id of the disjoint group.

    3. In the sub-id field, enter the subgroup ID of the disjoint group.

    4. In the source field, enter the association source. This is applicable only on XE devices and required when setting association group.
9.

Click Dry run to validate and save your changes. When you are ready to activate the policy, click Commit changes.