BFD is a protocol that I assumed I knew “well” as it is quite straightforward…. But after having to check how to configure BFD multihop works I notices, I had actually no idea. As usual, I need to read the RFC at some point.
From this link, I noticed that the concept of Hellos and Echo…. and that echo uses the same IP as src and destination…. I really like the wireshark captures.
Copy/Paste from the link
Packet Types Control Packets Control packets are used to establish BFD peerings. Essential information are included within these packets, to include flags for things such as authentication, in addition to the timer negotiations. These packets are send via UDP to the destination of the far side IP, utilizing the bfd-control port of 3784. Because these packets must actually be processed by the peer, they are sent less frequently then the actual BFD echos used for sub second failure detection. Echo Packets BFD echo packets are essentially for local use. They are sent with the same source, and destination IP of itself, destined for the UDP bfd-echo port of 3785. When an echo packet is received, because the destination IP is not of the router receiving it, it simple forwards it out of the appropriate interface, ridding the need to punt it up to the processor. Because the source and destination IP are the local router, BFD can be ran asynchronous. As in, you can set up a single side to utilize BFD echo detection, while the other side merely maintains a BFD neighbor relationship through control packets.
And now about the BFD multihop. It is a short read, and main point is the UDP port is 4784 compared with 3784 in single-hop.
Then checking for the specific details for configuring BFD MH in NX-OS, it is better to check the official documentation. That for example confirms “Echo mode is not supported for multihop BFD.”
Another thing to take into account is the COPP. You need to check if your device OS captures BFD in the CoPP policies as multi-hop goes to CPU. As well, check if there is any other hardware configuration required.
Another thing that bites me is that when testing this in a software lab, BFD is always down but at least the routing protocols come up.