One of the limiting factors in the operation of large Novell Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) internetworks is the amount of bandwidth consumed by the large, periodic Service Advertisement Protocol (SAP) updates. Novell servers periodically send clients information about the services they provide by broadcasting this information onto their connected local-area network (LAN) or wide-area network (WAN) interfaces. Routers are required to propagate SAP updates through an IPX network so that all clients can see the service messages. It is possible to reduce SAP traffic on Novell IPX networks by the following means:


•Filtering SAP updates through access lists. SAP updates can be filtered by prohibiting routers from advertising services from specified Novell servers.


•Configuring Cisco routers on Novell IPX networks to run Enhanced IGRP. Although filters provide a means of eliminating the advertisements of specified services, Enhanced IGRP provides incremental SAP updates for a finer granularity of control. Complete SAP updates are sent periodically on each interface only until an IPX Enhanced IGRP neighbor is found. Thereafter, SAP updates are sent only when there are changes to the SAP table. In this way, bandwidth is conserved, and the advertisement of services is reduced without being eliminated.


Incremental SAP updates are automatic on serial interfaces and can be configured on LAN media. Enhanced IGRP also provides partial routing updates and fast convergence for IPX networks. Administrators may choose to run only the partial SAP updates or to run both the reliable SAP protocol and the partial routing update portion of Enhanced IGRP.


•Configuring Cisco routers on Novell IPX networks to send incremental SAP updates. With Software Release 10.0, the incremental SAP updates just described can be configured for Cisco routers on Novell IPX networks, without the requirement of running the routing update feature of Enhanced IGRP (only the partial SAP updates are enabled). This feature is supported on all interface types. Again, SAP updates are sent only when changes occur on a network. Only the changes to SAP tables are sent as updates.