Cloud Router overview
Cloud Router is a distributed and fully managed offering that provides Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) speaker and responder capabilities. Cloud Router works with Cloud Interconnect, Cloud VPN, and Router appliances to create dynamic routes in VPC networks based on BGP-received and custom learned routes.
Cloud Router and the Andromeda network virtualization stack (Andromeda) (PDF download) work together. Andromeda handles all packet routing and forwarding capabilities, and Cloud Routers manage corresponding BGP sessions. Cloud Routers don't provide packet routing or forwarding capability.
Google Cloud products that use Cloud Router
The following table describes products that use Cloud Router:
| Product | Dynamic routing with Cloud Router | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Interconnect | Required | Create VLAN attachments |
| Cross-Cloud Interconnect | Required |
Cross-Cloud Interconnect overview
|
| Partner Interconnect | Required | Create VLAN attachments |
| Router appliances | Required | Creating Router appliance instances |
| HA VPN | Required |
Creating
an HA VPN gateway to a peer VPN gateway Creating an HA VPN between Google Cloud networks |
| Classic VPN | Optional |
Creating a Classic VPN using dynamic routing Creating a Classic VPN using static routing |
Cloud NAT relies on Cloud Routers for control plane capabilities, but not for BGP session management.
Key features
Cloud Router offers the following features:
BGP session management, including support for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) and MD5 authentication.
Advertised routes: advertise IP ranges to your network when you use a supported product.
Learned routes: Cloud Router uses routes received from BGP peers and custom learned routes to create dynamic routes in VPC networks.
BGP route policies (Preview: BGP route policies let you set rules to filter BGP routes or modify BGP route attributes.
IP protocols support
Cloud Router supports IPv6 route exchange through either of the following:
- BGP over IPv6
- BGP over IPv4 using multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP)
For information about advertising IPv6 prefixes, see Advertising subnet IPv6 address ranges.
You can create the following types of BGP sessions:
- IPv4 BGP sessions that exchange only IPv4 prefixes
- IPv6 BGP sessions that exchange only IPv6 prefixes
- IPv4 BGP sessions using MP-BGP that exchange both IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes
- IPv6 BGP sessions using MP-BGP that exchange both IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes
IPv6 BGP peering and IPv6 route exchange aren't supported for the following resources:
- Classic VPN tunnels
- Router appliance (part of Network Connectivity Center)
- Cross-Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments
You can configure an IPv4 BGP session and an IPv6 BGP session simultaneously for an HA VPN tunnel or a Dedicated Interconnect VLAN attachment. When you configure both BGP sessions simultaneously, the IPv4 BGP session only exchanges IPv4 routes, and the IPv6 BGP session only exchanges IPv6 routes.
What's next
To help build your network topology with Cloud Router, see Best practices for Cloud Router.
To find definitions for Cloud Router terminology, see Key terms.
Create VLAN attachments (Dedicated Interconnect).