Routing Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, Cisco IOS XR Release

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BFD hardware offload support for IPv6

Updated: June 30, 2026

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Explains how IPv6 BFD hardware offload improves failure detection scale and convergence while outlining support limitations for dampening and bundle operation.

BFD hardware offload support for IPv6 is a BFD capability that

  • offloads BFD session processing to the network processing units on line cards in an IPv6 network

  • improves scale, and

  • reduces overall network convergence time by sending rapid failure detection packets to routing protocols for routing table recalculation.

Restrictions for BFD hardware offload support for IPv6

These restrictions apply to BFD hardware offload over IPv6:

  • You cannot use this feature over MPLS LDP, VRRP, BVI, or IRB interfaces.

  • You cannot use BFD dampening with BFD over IPv6.

  • For BFD over Bundle with IPv6, you must statically configure the link-local address; dynamic configuration is not supported.

Configure BFD hardware offload for IPv6

These examples show how to configure BFD hardware offload for multiple protocols.

Procedure

1.

Configure BFD over Bundle (BOB) for hardware offload.

Example:

Router# config
Router(config)# interface Bundle-Ether 1
Router(config-if)# bfd mode ietf
Router(config-if)# bfd address-family ipv6 multiplier 3
Router (config-if)# bfd address-family ipv6 destination 2001:DB8:20::1
Router (config-if)# bfd address-family ipv6 fast-detect
Router(config-if)# bfd address-family ipv6 minimum-interval 1200
Router(config-if)# ipv6 address 2001:DB8:20::2/64
2.

Configure BFD with a static route.

Example:

Router(config)# router static
Router(config-static)# address-family ipv6 unicast 2001:DB8:1011:17E4::1/128 2001:DB8:AB11:15D2::2 bfd fast-detect minimum-interval 1200 multiplier 3
3.

Configure BFD with IS-IS.

Example:

Router(config)# router isis 65444
Router(config-isis)# address-family ipv6 unicast
Router(config-isis)# exit
Router(config-isis)# interface HundredGige 0/3/0/1
Router(config-isis-if)# bfd minimum-interval 1200
Router(config-isis-if)# bfd multiplier 7
Router(config-isis-if)# bfd fast-detect ipv6
Router(config-isis-if)# address-family ipv6 unicast
4.

Configure BFDv6 with OSPFv3.

Example:

Router(config)# router ospfv3 main
Router(config-ospfv3)# area 0
Router(config-ospfv3-ar)# interface HundredGige 0/0/0/1
Router(config-ospfv3-ar-if)# bfd multiplier 7
Router(config-ospfv3-ar-if)# bfd fast-detect
Router(config-ospfv3-ar-if)# bfd minimum-interval 1200
5.

Configure BFD over BGP.

Example:

Router(config)# router bgp 120
Router(config-bgp)# neighbor 2001:DB8:1::1
Router(config-bgp-nbr)# bfd fast-detect
Router(config-bgp-nbr)# bfd multiplier 7
Router(config-bgp-nbr)# bfd minimum-interval 1200

Verify the configuration using the show bfd ipv6 session command: 

Router# show bfd ipv6 session
Interface           Dest Addr      
                                        Local det time(int*mult)      State     
H/W                 NPU             Echo             Async           
------------------- --------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------
BE7.2               fe80::28a:96ff:fed6:9cdb                      
Yes                 0/0/CPU0        0s(0s*0)         900ms(300ms*3)   UP        
BE7.4               fe80::28a:96ff:fed6:9cdb                      
Yes                 0/0/CPU0        0s(0s*0)         900ms(300ms*3)   UP