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