Overview

An access control list (ACL) is a set of rules for identifying traffic based on criteria such as source IP address, destination IP address, and port number. The rules are also called permit or deny statements.

ACLs are primarily used for packet filtering. "Configuring packet filtering with ACLs" provides an example. You can use ACLs in QoS, security, routing, and other modules for identifying traffic. The packet drop or forwarding decisions depend on the modules that use ACLs.