350-501 Architecture Practice Question
A service provider is deploying Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SR-TE) to optimize traffic flows. Which mechanism is used to steer traffic into an SR-TE policy?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the color extended community with BGP communities used for routing policy (e.g., route maps) or assume that SR-TE requires explicit tunnel interfaces like RSVP-TE, when in fact the color community is the key steering mechanism in SR-TE.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Color extended community on BGP routes
In Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SR-TE), traffic is steered into an SR-TE policy using a color extended community attached to BGP routes. The color community acts as a service-level identifier that maps BGP-learned prefixes to a specific SR-TE policy on the headend router, enabling automated traffic engineering without per-flow state or tunnel interfaces.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
RSVP-TE tunnel interface
Why it's wrong here
That is for RSVP-TE, not SR-TE.
- ✓
Color extended community on BGP routes
Why this is correct
The color community is the standard way to steer traffic into an SR-TE policy.
- ✗
BGP prefix-independent convergence (PIC)
Why it's wrong here
PIC is for fast convergence, not traffic steering.
- ✗
Manual static route pointing to the policy
Why it's wrong here
Static routes can be used but are not the primary mechanism; color-based is automatic.
- ✗
LDP label distribution
Why it's wrong here
LDP distributes labels for LSPs, not for SR-TE policies.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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