RFC 2283 (rfc2283) - Page 1 of 9
Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group T. Bates
Request for Comments: 2283 Cisco Systems
Category: Standards Track R. Chandra
Cisco Systems
D. Katz
Juniper Networks
Y. Rekhter
Cisco Systems
February 1998
Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
2. Abstract
Currently BGP-4 [BGP-4] is capable of carrying routing information
only for IPv4 [IPv4]. This document defines extensions to BGP-4 to
enable it to carry routing information for multiple Network Layer
protocols (e.g., IPv6, IPX, etc...). The extensions are backward
compatible - a router that supports the extensions can interoperate
with a router that doesn't support the extensions.
3. Overview
The only three pieces of information carried by BGP-4 that are IPv4
specific are (a) the NEXT_HOP attribute (expressed as an IPv4
address), (b) AGGREGATOR (contains an IPv4 address), and (c) NLRI
(expressed as IPv4 address prefixes). This document assumes that any
BGP speaker (including the one that supports multiprotocol
capabilities defined in this document) has to have an IPv4 address
(which will be used, among other things, in the AGGREGATOR
attribute). Therefore, to enable BGP-4 to support routing for
multiple Network Layer protocols the only two things that have to be
added to BGP-4 are (a) the ability to associate a particular Network
Layer protocol with the next hop information, and (b) the ability to
associated a particular Network Layer protocol with NLRI. To identify
Bates, et. al. Standards Track