Cisco Crosswork Planning Design 7.2.x User Guide

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Cisco Crosswork Planning Design 7.2.x User Guide

Create demands and demand meshes

Updated: August 14, 2026

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Outlines the process for creating demands and configuring demand meshes.

Create a demand

Use this task to add a new demand to your network plan via the Network Design page.

Before you begin

All selections and entries are optional except for identifying the source and destination.

Procedure

  1. Open the plan file (refer to Open plan files). It opens in the Network Design page.

    From the toolbar, choose Actions > Insert > Demands > Demand.

    Alternatively, in the Network Summary panel on the right side, click Add icon > Demands in the Demands tab.

  2. Enter the demand name.

  3. Specify the type of source and destination (node, interface, external AS, or external endpoint). Select additional Source and Destination details as needed.

    Figure 1. Source and destination options
    Source and destination options for demands

  4. Select a service class. If there are no service classes, create a new service class and select it. For instructions on creating a new service class, refer to Create service classes.

  5. Enter a value for the latency bound.

  6. Choose a topology to restrict the demand routes only to interfaces or LSPs belonging to that topology. The default is unrestricted routing.

  7. Retain the Active default to include the demand in Cisco Crosswork Planning simulations, or uncheck Active to exclude this demand from simulations.

  8. For each traffic level, click Edit to specify the amount of traffic. You can also leave it empty for the Demand deduction tool to complete. Specify the growth rate you want to use for forecasting purposes. For more information, refer to Evaluate Impact of Traffic Growth.

  9. Click Add to create the demand.

The new demand is created and appears in your plan, ready for simulation and analysis.

Create a demand mesh

Complete these steps to add a demand mesh to your network plan via the Network Design page.

Procedure

  1. Open the plan file (refer to Open plan files). It opens in the Network Design page.

  2. From the toolbar, choose Actions > Insert > Demands > Demand mesh.

    Alternatively, in the Network Summary panel on the right side, click the Demands tab, and then click Add icon > Demand mesh.

  3. In the Demand mesh details panel:

    1. Enter a demand name. By default, no name is set to prevent the creation of many demands using the same name. If you need to identify a specific area of the network, such as a VPN, assigning names can be helpful. However, leaving demands unnamed reduces the chance of creating a large number of demands that have the same name.
    2. Select a service class.
    3. Select a topology.

  4. In the Source panel:

    Select one or more sources from the Source check boxes. Options include Nodes, External ASes, and External Endpoints. By default, all options are selected. Also, all available nodes, external ASes, and external endpoints are selected. To customize your selection, use the Edit button next to each option.

  5. In the Destination panel:

    1. To create demands for destinations that differ from the sources, check the Specify separate set of destinations check box and provide the required details.
    2. To create demands in only one direction, uncheck the Also create demands from destination to source check box. This applies only when you select a different set of destinations.

  6. Expand the Other options panel and make the required changes.

    • Delete existing demands with same name: Deletes all existing demands before new ones are created. The default (unselected) is to keep the existing demands and add only new ones.

    • Use interface endpoints to/from external AS nodes: When creating demands for external ASes, use a source/destination type of interface, and create a demand for all interfaces connected to each node in the external AS. For information on AS relationships and routing policies, refer to Simulate BGP Routing.

    • Respect AS relationships: If checked, keep the existing AS relationships defined by the Routing Policy (default). If unchecked, recreate the AS relationships. The Routing policy property is defined in the Edit AS Relationships window. For more information about AS relationships and routing policies, refer to Simulate BGP Routing.

    • Respect external mesh settings: If checked, keep the existing External mesh settings defined for external AS meshes (default). If unchecked, recreate the external AS mesh. The External mesh property is set in the Edit AS window.

    • Include demands to self: Creates demands that have the same source and destination node (default).

  7. Save the changes.

Create demands for LSPs

Use this task to add demands for LSPs in a plan file.

Procedure

  1. Open the plan file (refer to Open plan files). It opens in the Network Design page.

  2. In the Network Summary panel on the right side, click the LSPs tab.

  3. Click Add icon and choose Demands for LSPs.

  4. Select the LSPs over which you want to run the demands.

  5. Select the service class for the resulting demands.

  6. Select the traffic for the newly created demands.

    • Traffic equal to the LSP setup bandwidth

    • Traffic equal to the LSP measurements

    • Zero, which is appropriate if you need to insert demand traffic in other ways, such as using Demand Deduction, importing it, or manually modifying it.

  7. To remove the restriction of setting these demands to only these LSPs, uncheck Mark LSPs as private. If you do not uncheck this check box, the LSPs will use only the resulting demands.

  8. Submit your changes.

Demands are created for selected LSPs and applied according to traffic settings and service class.

Set demand latency bounds

Use this task to set fixed latency bounds for demands within a network plan to control traffic latency and support performance objectives.

Use the Edit Demands page to set demand latency bounds to fixed values. All values are in milliseconds (ms).

Procedure

  1. Open the plan file (refer to Open plan files). It opens in the Network Design page.

  2. In the Network Summary panel on the right side, select one or more demands from the Demands table.

  3. Click Edit icon and select the required Demands.

    Note

    If you are editing a single demand, you can also use the > Edit option under the Actions column.

  4. To set a fixed value for the latency bound, enter a value in the Latency bound field.

    To delete a latency bound, delete the text in this field.

  5. Save your changes.