Cloud Enterprise Network:Functions and features

Edition comparison

Transit routers are available in two editions: Basic Edition and Enterprise Edition.

Basic Edition transit routers support core connectivity (VPC, VBR, CCN, and transit router connections), inter-region communication, routing policies, and essential monitoring. Enterprise Edition transit routers add advanced routing (custom route tables, route learning, aggregate routes), IPsec-VPN connections, traffic scheduling, multicast, flow logs, and enhanced diagnostics. CCN connections are available only on Basic Edition transit routers.

Network instance connections

Attach network instances to a transit router to establish private communication between them. The transit router serves as the central hub for connecting different types of network instances.

VPC connections

Attach VPCs to a transit router to establish private connectivity between them. Combine VPC connections with inter-region connections to enable communication across regions.

VBR connections

Attach VBRs to a transit router to extend private network connectivity to on-premises data centers through Express Connect circuits.

CCN connections

Attach CCN instances to a transit router to connect Smart Access Gateway (SAG) devices and branch-office networks to your cloud environment. CCN connections are available only on Basic Edition transit routers.

Inter-region communication

Inter-region connections link transit routers in different regions, extending your network across multiple Alibaba Cloud regions.

Bandwidth plans and inter-region connections

An inter-region connection links transit routers deployed in different regions. Purchase a bandwidth plan that allocates bandwidth between the two regions to create an inter-region connection.

Bandwidth multiplexing

Share inter-region bandwidth resources between a CCN transit router and a regional transit router. Bandwidth multiplexing simplifies configuration and allows more flexible use of bandwidth across connected networks.

Routes

Enterprise Edition transit routers provide advanced routing capabilities for fine-grained control over traffic forwarding and route advertisement across your network.

Custom route tables

Custom route tables function like Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) on traditional routers. They are isolated from the default route table of an Enterprise Edition transit router, enabling traffic separation for different network instances based on their associated route tables.

Route learning

Route learning controls how network instances advertise their routes to a transit router. Enable route learning between a network instance and a route table to have the instance's routes appear in that route table automatically, reducing manual route configuration effort.

Associated forwarding

Associated forwarding controls how traffic from a network instance is forwarded. Associate a network instance with a route table so the Enterprise Edition transit router looks up routes in that table and forwards traffic accordingly.

Custom routes

Add static routes and blackhole routes to the route table of an Enterprise Edition transit router for direct control over traffic forwarding paths.

Prefix lists

Associate a VPC prefix list with the route table of an Enterprise Edition transit router. The system automatically adds routes pointing to the CIDR blocks in the prefix list, keeping the transit router route table in sync with VPC prefix list changes.

Route synchronization

Route synchronization enables Enterprise Edition transit routers to automatically advertise routes to attached network instances, eliminating manual route configuration.

Aggregate routes

Aggregate routes consolidate multiple specific routes on an Enterprise Edition transit router into a single summary route. When route synchronization is enabled for a VPC, the transit router advertises the aggregate route instead of individual specific routes, reducing the number of route entries in VPC route tables.

Routing policies

Routing policies filter, modify, or deny route advertisements based on match conditions and actions. Define routing policies to control whether routes in a transit router's route table are advertised to network instances or other transit routers.

Cloud services

Transit routers provide on-premises networks with access to Alibaba Cloud services and private DNS resolution through PrivateZone.

PrivateZone

PrivateZone is a VPC-based DNS resolution and management service for private domain names. After attaching VBRs and CCN instances to a transit router, on-premises networks connected to the CEN instance can resolve private domain names through PrivateZone.

Multicast

Enterprise Edition transit routers support multicast networking for efficient one-to-many data distribution across your cloud network.

Monitoring and O&M

CEN provides built-in monitoring, diagnostics, and troubleshooting tools for maintaining network health and resolving connectivity issues.

CEN monitoring

View monitoring data for transit routers, bandwidth plans, inter-region connections, Express Connect circuits connected to VBRs, and traffic on attached network instances from the Charts tab in the CEN console.

Health checks

Test the connectivity of Express Connect circuits by configuring health checks on VBRs attached to a transit router. Health checks continuously monitor the link status between your data center and Alibaba Cloud.

Flow logs

Flow logs capture information about inter-region traffic between transit routers and traffic over VBR connections. Use flow logs to analyze bandwidth usage patterns and troubleshoot network issues.

Transit router diagnostics

CEN integrates with Network Intelligence Service (NIS) to run diagnostics on transit routers and generate troubleshooting suggestions. Identify and resolve network errors on transit routers based on the diagnosis results.

Next steps

• Create a CEN instance

• Create a transit router

• CEN billing