RFC 890 (rfc890) - Page 1 of 3

Exterior Gateway Protocol implementation schedule

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Network Working Group                                         Jon Postel
Request for Comments: 890                                            ISI
                                                           February 1984

           Exterior Gateway Protocol Implementation Schedule


Status of this Memo

   This memo is a policy statement on the implementation of the Exterior
   Gateway Protocol in the Internet.  This is an official policy
   statement of ICCB and DARPA.

The Current Situation

   Currently the Internet has a number of smart gateways and a number of
   dumb gateways.  The smart gateways dynamically exchange routing
   information among themselves using the Gateway Gateway
   Protocol (GGP) [3].  The dumb gateways do not exchange routing
   information dynamically.

   The dumb gateways must be listed in the smart gateway routing tables,
   and changes in dumb gateways status (e.g., adding new dumb gateways)
   in the smart gateways tables requires human intervention.

   The amount of routing traffic between smart gateways depends on the
   number of smart gateways and the total number of networks.  Since
   dumb gateways typically connect a single network at the edge of the
   Internet, there is typically one more network in the routing table
   for each dumb gateway.

   Gateways that connect a single network to the edge of the Internet
   may be called "stub" gateways.

   The current GGP procedures used by the smart gateways are at the
   limits of their capacity.  A significant change to these procedures
   is urgently required.  This is difficult to perform because the smart
   gateways are maintained by several different groups, and because it
   is difficult to isolate a subset of these gateways for testing new
   procedures.

The Future Situation

   In the future, as it is currently envisioned, there will be a number
   of co-equal autonomous systems of gateways.  Each as will have its
   own private internal procedures for maintaining routing information,
   perhaps via an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP).  The smartness of a
   gateway will be the smartness of the IGP used in the autonomous
   system the gateway participates in.  Some gateways of each autonomous
   system will exchange routing informations with some gateways of other
   autonomous systems via an Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) [2].


Postel
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