OcNOS uses Forwarding Plane Load Balancing when the kernel supports Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP). OcNOS installs the maximum number of ECMP routes supported by the kernel. This allows for load balancing to be performed with more than one nexthop to reach a destination. If the router receives and installs multiple paths with the same administrative distance and cost to a destination, load-balancing is possible.

Ideally, multiple nexthops have different interfaces to the destination, but this is not mandatory. The algorithm for distributing traffic across ECMP routes is dependent on the kernel, and typically based on the protocol, source address, destination address, and port.