BGP Overview

AS is a collection of networks under a single technical administration

IGPs operate within an AS
EGPs connect different Ass
AS is designated by 16 bits in range from 1 to 65535. A range of private AS are
from 64512 through 65535.
BGP is used between AS and guarantee exchange of loop free routing
information.
BGP is an Advanced Distance Vector with many enhancements
BGP use Path Vector or Attributes as Metric
When to use BGP
AS allow packets to transit through it reach other autonomous systems
AS has multiple connections to other AS
The flow of traffic entering and leaving your AS must be manipulated
And the effect of BGP are well understood. If the BGP not controlled and filtered
properly, has the potential to allow an outside AS to affect your routing decisions.
How big is the Internet?
Over 100,000 BGP routes
Over 10,000 AS numbers
A routing table that uses more than 30Mb
When BGP is not appropriate
A single connection to Internet
Routing Policy and route selection are not a concern for your AS
Lack of memory or processor power on BGP routers to handle constant updates
Limited understanding of route filtering and BGP path selection
Low bandwidth between AS
USE STATIC ROUTE INSTEAD
COMMAND: ip route prefix mask address/interface [distance]
RIP Static Route Example:
Ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 S0
Router rip
Network 172.16.0.0
OSPF example
Ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 S0
Router ospf 111
Network 176.16.0.0 0.0.255.255 area 0
The default-information originate always command propagate a default route into OSPF
routing domain. The always cause the default route to be always advertised whether or
not the router has a the path up.
BGP Terminology
BGP is a distance vector protocol
BGP runs on top of TCP port 179
Incremental triggered updates only
Periodic keepalives to verify TCP connectivity
Rich metrics (Attributes) . Including a list of the full path that route should take to
reach a destination network. This path information is used to build a graph of ASs
that is loop free and where routing policies can be applied to enforce some
restrictions on the routing behavior. The path is loop free, because a router
running BGP will not accept a routing update that already includes its AS number
in the path list.
Design to scale to huge internetworks
Floating Static Route
You can configure the administrative distance of the static route, higher than
dynamic routing, so the static routing will be used as path of last resort when no
Dynamic information is available.
Command: IP route prefix mask interface distance
BGP Table
BGP has its own table, in addition to the IP Routing table
Information can be exchanged between the two tables
The router can be configured to share both tables
Peers = Neighbors: Any two routers that have formed a TCP connection in order to
exchange BGP routing information are called peers.
Neighbors:
Internal should not be necessary directly connected
External should be directly connected, or we can use the ebgp multihop
command.
Policy Based Routing
BGP allows administrators to define policies, or rules , how data will flow
through the autonomous systems
BGP and associated tools cannot express all routing policies. BGP does not enable
one AS to send traffic to a neighbor AS, intending that the traffic take a different
route from that taken by traffic originating in the neighbor AS. We cannot
influence how our neighbors AS will route our traffic, but we can influence how
our traffic goes to our neighbors AS.
Can support any policy conforming to the hop by hop routing paradigm
BGP Attributes
BGP metrics are called path attributes:
Well known Mandatory Must be recognize and propagate. Must be present in the
updates
AS-PATH
Next-hop
Origin
Well known Discretionary Must be recognize and propagate . Could be present in
updates
Local Preference
Atomic aggregate
Optional Transitive if not recognized, is marked and propagate
Community
Aggregator
Optional nontransitive Discard if not recognized
MED
Local preference
The path with highest preference value are most desirable
The local preference is an attribute that is configured on a router and exchanged
only among routers within the same AS. The default value for local preference is
100.
MED
Path with lowest MED (also called metric) value are most desirable
 MED is a indication to external BGP neighbors about preferred path into an AS.
This is a dynamic way to influence another AS on which way it should choose to
reach a certain route when multiple entry points into an AS exist. MED is
exchanged between ASs , unlike local preference.
By using the MED attribute, BGP is the only protocol that can affect how routes
are sent into an AS.
Origin
IGP (i) (Network command)
EGP (e) (Redistribute from EGP)
Incomplete (?) (Unknown or Redistributed from IGP or Static)
Community
BGP communities are one way to filter incoming or outgoing routes. In BGP
communities, routers tag routes with an indicator (the community) and allow
other routers to make decisions based on that tag. BGP communities are used for
destinations that share some common properties and therefore share common
policies; router act on the community rather than on individual routes.
Communities are not restricted to one network or one AS and have no physical
boundaries.
By default, communities are stripped in outgoing . To propagate the community, it
must be configured.
Weight
Path with highest weight are most desirable
Weight are not sent to any BGP neighbors
Value could be from 0 to 65535 and the default is 32768
Other paths have the weight 0 by default
Weight is configured locally on the router and is not propagated to any other
routers.
BGP Synchronization
Synchronization rule: Do not use, or advertise to an external neighbor, a route
learned by IBGP, unless that route is local or is learned from IGP. If an AS is
passing traffic to another AS, BGP should not advertise a route before all routers
in the AS have learned about the route via the IGP.
A router learning a route via IBGP will wait until the IGP has propagated the route
within the AS and then will advertise it to external peers. This rule ensures that all
routers in the AS are synchronized and will be able to route traffic that the AS
advertises to other ASs . This approach ensures consistency of routing information
(avoid black holes) within the AS.
BGP synchronization is on by default
 It is safe to turn off BGP synchronization only if all routers in the AS are running
BGP (full mesh IBGP)
The IBGP must have a matching IGP before start to advertise.
BGP Operation
Messages types:
Open Hold Time and Router ID
Keepalive
Update
Notification When error detected, BGP connection closed after sent
Route Selection Decision:
Highest weight (local to router)
Highest local preference (Global within AS)
Route originated by the local router
Shortest AS-Path
Lowest origin code
Lowest MED
EBGP path over IBGP path
Path through the closest IGP neighbor
Oldest route for EBGP paths
Lowest neighbor BGP router ID
Lowest neighbor IP address
BGP-4 supports CIDR and Aggregate
BGP update message include both the prefix and the prefix length. Previous
version only included the prefix and the length was assumed from the address
class.
Address can be aggregate when advertised by a BGP router
The AS-Path attribute can include a combined list of all ASs that all the
aggregated routes have passed through. This combined list should be considered
to ensure that the route is loop-free.
There are two related attributes to aggregate addressing. The well-known
discretionary attribute ATOMIC AGGREGATE informs the neighbors AS that the
originating router has aggregated the routes. The optional transitive attribute
AGGREGATOR specifies the BGP router ID and the AS number of the router that
performed the route aggregation.
 By default, the aggregate route will be advertised as coming from the AS that
performed the aggregation and will have the Atomic Aggregate Attribute set to
show that information might be missing. The AS numbers in the nonaggregated
routes are not listed. The routers can be configured to include the list of all ASs
contained in all paths that are being summarized.
Implementing BGP in scale networks
BGP Split horizon
Routes learned via IBGP are never propagated to other IBGP peers
Therefore need full mesh of IBGP peers required within AS
Full Mesh IBGP Problems
Avoid routing information loops
Does not scale, Many TCP sessions, Replicate Routing Traffic
Route Reflector
Modifies BGP split horizon rule by allowing the router configured as route
reflector to propagate routes learned by IBGP to other IBGP peers
Benefits
Solves the IBGP full mesh problem
Packet forwarding is not affected
Can have multiple route reflector for redundancy
Can have multiple levels of route reflection
Normal BGP can coexist
Easy migration
Route Reflector Terminology
Route reflectors
Clients
Cluster
Nonclients
Originator-ID
Cluster ID
Route Reflector Design
Divide AS into multiple clusters (At least one route reflector and few clients per
cluster)
Route Reflectors are fully meshed with IBGP
Use single IGP to carry next-hop and local routes
Route Reflector Operation
Reflector receives updates from clients and non-clients
Update is from client, reflect to non-client and client (except originator)
Update is from nonclient, reflect to clients
Update is from EBGP peer, reflect to all non clients and clients
Route Reflector Migration TIPS
Follow the physical connection
Configure one route reflector at a time
Eliminate redundant IBGP sessions
Place one route reflector per cluster
Route Reflector Configuration
Neighbor ip address route-reflector-client (this configuration is on the Router
Reflector)
Obs: the ip address is the client address.
Verify the Route Reflector
Show ip bgp neighbor
Policy Control Introduction
To restrict routing information to and from neighbors use:
Distribute lists (Using Access-List)
Prefix lists
Policy Control
Prefix List (IOS 12.0) can be used as an alternative to Access List in many BGP
route filtering commands. The advantages are:
Significant performance improvement
Support for incremental modifications
More user friendly command line interface
Greater flexibility
Filtering with Prefix List
Empty prefix list permit all routes
Permit = use route
Router begins the search at the statement at the top of the prefix list, with lowest
sequence number.
When there is a match, the rest of the list is ignored
 Implicit deny is assumed at the end of the prefix list
Configuring the Prefix list
Ip prefix-list list name [seq seq value] deny/permit network/length
Neighbor ip address prefix-list prefix-listname in/out
Cannot use PREFIX-LIST and DISTRIBUTE-LIST to the same neighbor.
Prefix List Sequence Number
Sequence numbers are generated automatically by default
Used to insert an entry in a specific order
Used to delete an individual entry
By default, the entries of a prefix list will have sequence values of 5, 10, 15 and
so on.
To disable certain entry, just use the command NO IP PREFIX-LIST
SEQUENCE-NUMBER and IP PREFIX-LIST SEQUENCE-NUMBER to enable
again.
Verify : Show ip prefix-list name and clear ip prefix-list
Show ip prefix-list detail : Display the information of all prefix lists
Show ip prefix-list detail name: Display de information of the specific prefix list
Show ip prefix-list name: Display the policy associated with specific prefix
Multihoming
Describe the situation where the AS is connected to more than one ISP. Usually is
done for two reasons:
Increase reliability , if one connection fail, another still connected
Increase the performance, so that the better path can be used to certain
destinations.
Types of Multihoming
Default routes from all providers All ISPs pass only default routes to the AS
Customer routes and default routes from all providers All ISPs pass default
routes and selected specific routes to the AS
Full routes from all providers The ISPs pass all routes to the AS
Default Routes from ISPs
Low CPU and Memory usage
Providers sends BGP default route, choice of provider decided by IGP metrics to
reach default route
AS sends all of its routes to provider , inbound path decided by internet
Customer and Default Routes from all ISPs
Medium CPU and Memory usage
Best path is usually shortest AS-path
Can override path choice using Local Preference for example
IGP metric to default route used for all other destinations
Full Routes from All Providers
Higher memory and CPU usage
Reach all destinations by best path, usually best AS-Path , however this can be
overriden
Can still manually tune path choice
Configuring Weight and Local Preference
(config-router) neighbor ip address weight value
(config-router) bgp default local-preference value
Advertising Network (IGP) into BGP
Network command
Redistributing static route
Use null0 interface in the Static Route
Config example:
router bgp 64520
redistribute static
ip route 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 null 0
or
Aggregate-address ip address
The prefer method is to use the aggregate-address command as long as more specific
route exist in the BGP table, then the aggregate is sent.
Redistributing dynamic IGP routes
Redistribution from the IGP is not recommended as it may cause instability
Include only local routes
Filter out other routes, can be complex
Advertising from BGP into IGP
Done with redistribution , if necessary
For ISP AS, redistribution not required
All routers run BGP; IBGP full mesh
 IBGP carrier exterior routes
IGP carries local information only, and next-hop information
Use no synchronization
Redistribution is not done, but filter for other AS
Use default routes instead
Non-ISP Redistributing from BGP into IGP, redistribution required if:
Not all routers run BGP
Require external route knowledge