RFC 1774 (rfc1774) - Page 1 of 10

BGP-4 Protocol Analysis

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Network Working Group                                  P. Traina, Editor
Request for Comments: 1774                                 cisco Systems
Category: Informational                                       March 1995

                        BGP-4 Protocol Analysis

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Introduction

   The purpose of this report is to document how the requirements for
   advancing a routing protocol to Draft Standard have been satisfied by
   the Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP-4). This report summarizes
   the key features of BGP, and analyzes the protocol with respect to
   scaling and performance. This is the first of two reports on the BGP
   protocol.

   BGP-4 is an inter-autonomous system routing protocol designed for
   TCP/IP internets.  Version 1 of the BGP protocol was published in RFC
   1105. Since then BGP versions 2, 3, and 4 have been developed.
   Version 2 was documented in RFC 1163. Version 3 is documented in
   RFC 1267.  The changes between versions are explained in Appendix 2 of
   [1].

   Possible applications of BGP in the Internet are documented in [2].

   Please send comments to .

Key features and algorithms of the BGP-4 protocol.

   This section summarizes the key features and algorithms of the BGP
   protocol. 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 does not make any assumptions
   about intra-autonomous system routing protocols employed by the
   various autonomous systems.  Specifically, BGP does not require all
   autonomous systems to run the same intra-autonomous system routing
   protocol.

   BGP is a real inter-autonomous system routing protocol. It imposes no
   constraints on the underlying Internet topology. The information
   exchanged via BGP is sufficient to construct a graph of autonomous
   systems connectivity from which routing loops may be pruned and some



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