What is application-aware routing in SD-WAN and how is it achieved?

• A. Application-aware routing uses application signatures or policy to steer traffic to best path according to SLA requirements; vManage applies data/control policies to classify and route application flows.
• B. It uses static IP addresses only.
• C. It relies on BGP metrics alone.
• D. It uses DNS name resolution to route.

Answer: (A)

Application-aware routing in SD-WAN means making routing decisions based on the identity of the application and the performance it requires. The network recognizes apps either by application signatures (deep packet inspection fingerprints and known ports/protocols) or by policy definitions, then steers each flow onto the path that best satisfies its SLA—considering factors like latency, jitter, packet loss, and available bandwidth.

This is achieved with centralized policy management (such as the vManage console) where data-plane and control-plane policies are created and pushed to the edge devices. The edge devices classify traffic, apply the defined policies, and use real-time telemetry from the network to compare path performance. The path-selection algorithm then routes or redistributes traffic across multiple WAN links (MPLS, broadband, LTE) to meet the desired service levels. If a link's performance drops, traffic for the affected applications can be automatically moved to a better path. This approach lets latency-sensitive apps (like voice and video) use the highest-quality path while bulk data can ride cheaper links, all while maintaining SLA-based priorities.