Floating Static Routes

Floating static routes are a useful and simple measure to provide backup routes via another hop or link. However, a floating static route just "lurks" there and does not provide load balancing! This can be as simple as two default routes that just differ in terms of metric or cost. As long as the preferred route with the better metric is available, the floating static route with the less attractive metric floats unused but suddenly takes over if the preferred route disappears. A requirement is an operating system that supports metrics for static routes. Lab 8-1 shows an example of this setup.