This 350-501 practice question tests your understanding of services. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Which TWO features are used to improve BGP convergence in an MPLS VPN environment?
Route redistribution
Why wrong: Redistribution does not affect BGP convergence.
Next-hop-self
Why wrong: This is a routing policy command, not convergence feature.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
BFD quickly detects link failures.
BGP multipath
Why wrong: Multipath load-balances, does not converge faster.
BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC)
PIC pre-installs backup paths for fast convergence.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) provides sub-second failure detection for BGP sessions, reducing the time to detect a link or neighbor failure from seconds (default BGP keepalive/hold timers) to milliseconds. BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC) pre-installs backup paths in the forwarding table, allowing traffic to be rerouted immediately upon failure without waiting for BGP to reconverge. Together, these features drastically improve BGP convergence in an MPLS VPN environment.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Route redistribution
Why it's wrong here
Redistribution does not affect BGP convergence.
Next-hop-self
Why it's wrong here
This is a routing policy command, not convergence feature.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
Why this is correct
BFD quickly detects link failures.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
BGP multipath
Why it's wrong here
Multipath load-balances, does not converge faster.
BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC)
Why this is correct
PIC pre-installs backup paths for fast convergence.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Cisco often tests the distinction between features that improve convergence speed (BFD, PIC) versus features that affect routing behavior or path selection (next-hop-self, multipath, redistribution), leading candidates to mistakenly select options that are useful but do not directly address convergence time.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
This is a routing policy command, not convergence feature.
Detailed technical explanation
BFD operates independently of the routing protocol, sending rapid hello packets at intervals as low as 50 ms (configurable with timers like 'bfd interval 50 min_rx 50 multiplier 3'), enabling detection of link failures in under 200 ms. BGP PIC (Prefix Independent Convergence) leverages the MPLS data plane by pre-computing and installing a backup path (e.g., via a BGP backup path or an LFA) in the FIB, so upon failure, the router switches to the backup path in hardware without waiting for BGP route recomputation. In real-world MPLS VPN deployments, combining BFD with PIC can achieve sub-50 ms convergence, meeting strict carrier-grade requirements.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A network engineer at a university connects two campus buildings via a fibre link. Both routers run OSPF, but no adjacency forms — even though both routers can ping each other. The engineer finds one router is in area 0 and the other in area 1. OSPF adjacency requires matching area numbers, hello/dead timers, and network type. IP reachability alone is not enough.
What to study next
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FAQ
Services — This question tests Services — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) — Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) provides sub-second failure detection for BGP sessions, reducing the time to detect a link or neighbor failure from seconds (default BGP keepalive/hold timers) to milliseconds. BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC) pre-installs backup paths in the forwarding table, allowing traffic to be rerouted immediately upon failure without waiting for BGP to reconverge. Together, these features drastically improve BGP convergence in an MPLS VPN environment.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
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