degree of preference
In BGP, an arbitrary rating number that the PortMaster assigns to every route it receives from a BGP peer. A higher numbers indicates a greater preference for a route when more than one exists to a destination. A route from an internal peer is assigned the local preference number that the PortMaster learned with the route. For a route learned from an external peer, the PortMaster calculates a number based on the autonomous system path length; the shortest path is preferred. You can use a routing policy rule to override the calculated or learned value and assign your own degree of preference to a route. See also local preference.