Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)

Bidirectional Forwarding Detection, or BFD, is a network protocol designed to rapidly detect failures and connection disruptions between two network devices. Routers or switches exchange control messages at short intervals to monitor the connection. If these messages are no longer received, BFD can identify a failure within a very short period. Routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF or IS-IS can then respond more quickly and switch traffic to available alternative network paths. BFD operates independently of the routing protocol in use, making it suitable for different network infrastructures. In enterprise networks, data centres and service provider environments, BFD helps minimise downtime and maintain high network availability.