BGP Overview and Features
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an exterior gateway protocol (EGP) used to exchange routing information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. It is a path-vector protocol, meaning it carries a list of AS numbers that a route has traversed.
Key Features:
- Path Vector Protocol: BGP advertises paths, not just next-hop information.
- Policy-Based Routing: Highly flexible for implementing routing policies.
- Scalability: Designed to handle the large scale of the Internet.
- TCP Port 179: Uses TCP for reliable communication between BGP peers.
- Autonomous Systems: Operates between different autonomous systems.