BGP

(Border Gateway Protocol)

Presented by:
Edgardo Andrés Rodríguez Meisel
Communication systems that use the
protocol
• Mainly used in internet
• Used to join very large OSPF networks
• Companies that need to have to two Internet service
providers (multi-homing)

Figure taken from

www.skullbox.net
Services provided by the protocol

• Connection Oriented
• Unreliable
• Package losses handled by TCP

Figure taken from

www.boxoid.com
Framing? Error control? Flow control?

• TCP is used between BGP peers

• ERROR, FLOW control and FRAMING handled by TCP

 The Frame

Figure taken from

Header http://www.rhyshaden.com
 The Frame
Header

• Marker: 16 octet field, set to all ones (used for compatibility)

• Length: Total length o message includes header, value varies from 19 to

4096

• Type:
• 1 – open
• 2 – update
• 3 – notification
• 4 - keepalive
 The Frame
Open Message

• Version: Displays protocol version, currently 4

• My Autonomous System: AS number of sender

• Hold Time: indicates maximum time that can elapse between the receipt of
successive UPDATE or KEEPALIVE messages from sender

• BGP Id: IP address assigned to the BGP speaker

• Optional Length: indicates the length of the OPTIONAL PARAMETERS field

• Optional Parameters
 The Frame
Update Message

• Withdrawn Routes: List of IP addresses prefixes for routes being

withdrawn from service

• Attribute: Specify certain attributes in the network

• NLRI: Carries CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) information

 The Frame
Notification Message

• Error code: indicates type of notification (error)

• Error Sub-code: provides more specific information about the error

• Diagnostic Data: used to diagnose the reason of the notification

 The Frame
Keepalive Message

• Used to determine if peers are reachable

• Consists of only the message header

• Sent maximum once per second (depends on

implementation)
 References

• Cisco.com. (n.d.). Internetworking Technology

Handbook [Online]. Available:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/internetworking/tech
nology/handbook/bgp.html

• Cecs.pdx.edu (n.d). [Online]. Available:

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~
jrb/routing/lectures/pdfs/bgp.pdf

• RFC4271