Google Cloud Router is a fully managed, distributed service that provides dynamic routing capabilities between your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network and other networks, using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). It acts as a BGP speaker and responder, enabling you to connect your Google Cloud VPC to on-premises networks, other cloud providers, or even router appliances.
Key Features and Functionality
Cloud Router works with several Google Cloud services to facilitate dynamic routing:
- Cloud Interconnect: Connect your on-premises network to your Google Cloud VPC.
- Cloud VPN: Create secure VPN connections between your on-premises network and your Google Cloud VPC.
- Router Appliances: Integrate third-party virtual appliances with your Google Cloud VPC.
How Cloud Router Works
Cloud Router uses BGP to exchange routing information with its peers. Here's a simplified explanation:
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BGP Sessions: Cloud Router establishes BGP sessions with your peer routers (e.g., on-premises routers, VPN gateways).
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Route Advertisement: Cloud Router advertises the routes it knows about in your VPC network to its peers. Conversely, it learns routes from its peers and adds them to your VPC network.
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Dynamic Routing: When network topology changes (e.g., a new subnet is added, a link fails), Cloud Router automatically updates the routes, ensuring traffic always follows the best available path.
Benefits of Using Cloud Router
- Dynamic Routing: Automatically adapts to network changes, reducing manual configuration.
- High Availability: Cloud Router is a distributed and fully managed service, providing high availability and reliability.
- Scalability: Handles the routing needs of large and complex networks.
- Simplified Management: Eliminates the need to manage physical routers.
- Integration: Works seamlessly with other Google Cloud networking services.
Example Use Case
Imagine you have an on-premises network and a Google Cloud VPC. You want to connect these two networks using Cloud Interconnect.
- You create a Cloud Interconnect connection.
- You create a Cloud Router in your Google Cloud VPC.
- You configure a BGP session between your Cloud Router and your on-premises router.
- Cloud Router and your on-premises router exchange routing information.
- Traffic can now flow between your on-premises network and your Google Cloud VPC.
Summary
In essence, Cloud Router is a distributed and fully managed offering that provides Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) speaker and responder capabilities. It simplifies network connectivity and management by enabling dynamic routing between your Google Cloud VPC network and other networks.
