Joe, 

It is my understanding that Performance Routing (PFR) and Optimized Edge Routing (OER) are the same thing; Cisco just basically renamed OER. Can you briefly explain the benefits / differences of Performance Routing vs. Optimized Edge Routing? 

Sure let’s start from the Data Sheet; 

“Cisco Performance Routing takes advantage of the vast intelligence imbedded in Cisco IOS Software to determine the optimal path based upon network and application policies. It is an evolution of the Cisco IOS OER technology with a much broader scope. The application intelligence and end-to-end network strategy of Cisco PFR are significantly broader than the scope of OER. The initial phase of PFR uses OER technology extensively to meet emerging application demands on the enterprise network.” 

In other words…. 

- OER was initially intended for “prefix” route optimization. It measures performance to/from prefixes and makes routing adjustments to use the best performing path. 

- PFR adds application intelligence to route optimization. PFR will measure application performance and make routing adjustments to use the best path on a per application basis; e.g best voice path, best sql path, etc… 

- PFR/OER can currently classify applications based upon well-known ports and DSCP. NBAR support will be added in 12.5. Other NBAR hardware assisted platforms will be added at a later date. 

- Another difference is Cisco’s vision to expand PFR beyond edge routing as in OER. This is further out but, we want to provide best performing path selection across all interfaces and in more places in the network. 

Hope this helps…