AWS Direct Connect introduces inbound prefix controls and higher prefix scale

AWS Direct Connect has announced inbound prefix controls, enabling users to allocate and manage inbound route-prefix allocations for private and transit virtual interfaces (VIFs) based on workload needs. Previously, Direct Connect VIFs could accept a maximum of 100 route prefixes advertised from on-premises networks. With inbound prefix controls, users can now allocate up to 1,000 prefixes per VIF and advertise routes directly. This feature introduces new prefix capacity pools at both the dedicated connection and Direct Connect gateway levels, allowing precise capacity allocation per workload. Connection pool sizes scale with connection speed, and LAG pools scale with the number of member connections. Prefix allocations can be configured via the AWS Direct Connect console or CLI/API, and are available at no additional cost in all regions where AWS Direct Connect is offered.

Why it matters

This update is particularly useful for users with large or growing networks that rely on AWS Direct Connect, as it removes previous route prefix limitations and enables more flexible routing configurations.