BGP-4 Protocol Analysis
RFC 4274
| Document | Type | RFC - Informational (January 2006; Errata) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | David Meyer , Keyur Patel | ||
| Last updated | 2018-12-20 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 4274 (Informational) | |
| Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Alex Zinin | ||
| Send notices to | shares@nexthop.com, yakov@juniper.net | ||
Network Working Group D. Meyer
Request for Comments: 4274 K. Patel
Category: Informational Cisco Systems
January 2006
BGP-4 Protocol Analysis
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
The purpose of this report is to document how the requirements for
publication of a routing protocol as an Internet Draft Standard have
been satisfied by Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP-4).
This report satisfies the requirement for "the second report", as
described in Section 6.0 of RFC 1264. In order to fulfill the
requirement, this report augments RFC 1774 and summarizes the key
features of BGP-4, as well as analyzes the protocol with respect to
scaling and performance.
Meyer & Patel Informational [Page 1]
RFC 4274 BGP-4 Protocol Analysis January 2006
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Key Features and Algorithms of BGP ..............................3
2.1. Key Features ...............................................3
2.2. BGP Algorithms .............................................4
2.3. BGP Finite State Machine (FSM) .............................4
3. BGP Capabilities ................................................5
4. BGP Persistent Peer Oscillations ................................6
5. Implementation Guidelines .......................................6
6. BGP Performance Characteristics and Scalability .................6
6.1. Link Bandwidth and CPU Utilization .........................7
7. BGP Policy Expressiveness and its Implications ..................9
7.1. Existence of Unique Stable Routings .......................10
7.2. Existence of Stable Routings ..............................11
8. Applicability ..................................................12
9. Acknowledgements ...............................................12
10. Security Considerations .......................................12
11. References ....................................................13
11.1. Normative References ....................................13
11.2. Informative References ..................................14
1. Introduction
BGP-4 is an inter-autonomous system routing protocol designed for
TCP/IP internets. Version 1 of BGP-4 was published in [RFC1105].
Since then, BGP versions 2, 3, and 4 have been developed. Version 2
was documented in [RFC1163]. Version 3 is documented in [RFC1267].
Version 4 is documented in [BGP4] (version 4 of BGP will hereafter be
referred to as BGP). The changes between versions are explained in
Appendix A of [BGP4]. Possible applications of BGP in the Internet
are documented in [RFC1772].
BGP introduced support for Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
[RFC1519]. Because earlier versions of BGP lacked the support for
CIDR, they are considered obsolete and unusable in today's Internet.
The purpose of this report is to document how the requirements for
publication of a routing protocol as an Internet Draft Standard have
been satisfied by Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP-4).
This report satisfies the requirement for "the second report", as
described in Section 6.0 of [RFC1264]. In order to fulfill the
requirement, this report augments [RFC1774] and summarizes the key
features of BGP-4, as well as analyzes the protocol with respect to
scaling and performance.
Meyer & Patel Informational [Page 2]
RFC 4274 BGP-4 Protocol Analysis January 2006
2. Key Features and Algorithms of BGP
This section summarizes the key features and algorithms of BGP. BGP
is an inter-autonomous system routing protocol; it is designed to be
used between multiple autonomous systems. BGP assumes that routing
within an autonomous system is done by an intra-autonomous system
routing protocol. BGP also assumes that data packets are routed from
source towards destination independent of the source. BGP does not
make any assumptions about intra-autonomous system routing protocols
deployed within the various autonomous systems. Specifically, BGP
does not require all autonomous systems to run the same intra-
autonomous system routing protocol (i.e., interior gateway protocol
or IGP).
Finally, note that BGP is a real inter-autonomous system routing
protocol; and, as such, it imposes no constraints on the underlying
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