Juniper and routing-instances

You can configure the following five types of routing instances among others:

Forwarding - Use this instance type for filter-based forwarding applications. For this instance type, there is no one-to-once mapping between an interface and a routing instance. All interfaces belong to the default instance inet.0.

Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN) - Use this routing instance type for Layer 2 virtual private network (VPN) implementations.

Non Forwarding- Use this routing instance type when a separation of routing table information is required. There is no corresponding forwarding table. All routes are installed into the default forwarding tables. IS-IS instances are strictly non forwarding instance types.

Virtual Router - Similar to a VPN routing and forwarding instance type, but used for non-VPN-related applications. There are no virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) import, VRF export, VRF target, or route distinguisher requirements for this instance type.

VRF - Use the VPN routing and forwarding (VRF) instance type for Layer 3 VPN implementations. This routing instance type has a VPN routing table as well as corresponding VPN forwarding table. For this instance type, there is a one-to-one mapping between an interface and a routing instance. Each VRF instance corresponds with a forwarding table. Routers on an interface go into the corresponding forwarding table.