Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

Policy-Based Routing, or PBR, is a routing method that directs data packets along specific network paths according to predefined policies. While conventional routing primarily determines the forwarding path based on the destination IP address and routing table, PBR can consider additional criteria. These may include the source IP address, protocol, port or type of traffic. Administrators can therefore specify that particular applications, user groups or network segments use a defined gateway or WAN connection. PBR is commonly used in multi-WAN environments, traffic engineering, network segmentation and scenarios requiring targeted use of different internet connections. The method provides flexible control over network paths but can increase network configuration and troubleshooting complexity when extensive policy sets are implemented.