BGP
NEIGHBOURSHIP USING LOOPBACK
CONFEDERATION
AGGREGATION
ATTRIBUTES
Neighbourship Using Loopback
• Physical interfaces can go down (e.g., cable unplugged, link failure),
which would break BGP sessions if neighborship was tied to them.
• A loopback interface doesn’t go down unless the router itself goes
down, making the BGP session more stable and resilient.
• Loopback IPs are usually statically assigned and don't change,
making configurations more consistent.
• eBGP involves the exchange of network prefixes between
autonomous systems. The time-to-live (TTL) on eBGP packets is set
to 1. BGP packets drop in transit if a multi-hop BGP session is
attempted. The TTL on iBGP packets is set to 255, which allows for
multi-hop sessions.
• A multi-hop BGP session allows BGP neighbors to establish a
connection even when they are not directly connected. By default,
eBGP (External BGP) neighbors must be directly connected because
BGP packets have a TTL (Time To Live) of 1, meaning they expire
after one hop. However, in scenarios where eBGP peers are multiple
hops away—such as when using loopback interfaces or passing
through intermediate routers multi-hop BGP is required.
• A confederation consists of sub-ASs known as member ASs that
combine into a larger AS known as an AS confederation. Member Ass
normally use ASNs from the private ASN range (64,512 to 65,535).
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a confederation is a mechanism
used to simplify the management of large autonomous systems
(ASes) by dividing them into smaller, sub-ASes, while still
appearing to the outside world as a single AS
• 1. Prefer the highest weight
• 2. Prefer the highest local preference
• 3. Prefer the route originated by the local router
• 4. Prefer the path with the shorter Accumulated Interior Gateway Protocol
(AIGP) metric attribute
• 5. Prefer the shortest AS_Path
• 6. Prefer the lowest origin code
• 7. Prefer the lowest multi-exit discriminator (MED)
• 8. Prefer an external path over an internal path
• 9. Prefer the path through the closest IGP neighbor
• 10. Prefer the oldest route for eBGP paths
• 11. Prefer the path with the lowest neighbor BGP RID
• 12. Prefer the path with the lowest neighbor IP address
BGP Aggregation
• BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) aggregation is a technique used to
reduce the number of routing entries in a network by summarizing
multiple IP prefixes into a single, more general prefix. This helps
improve scalability, reduces the size of routing tables, and optimizes
network performance.
BGP Suppress and Unsuppress
• In BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), route suppression is used to limit
the number of specific routes that are advertised. This is particularly
useful when employing BGP aggregation, where multiple routes are
summarized into a broader prefix
• BGP Unsuppress refers to the process of allowing previously
suppressed routes to be advertised again. This is particularly relevant
when dealing with route aggregation and suppression, where specific
detailed routes may have been hidden to optimize network
performance.
Route Map
• Route maps provide more functionality than pure filtering; they
provide a method to manipulate BGP path attributes as well. Route
maps are applied on a BGP neighbor basis for routes that are
advertised or received. A different route map can be used for each
direction. The route map is associated to the BGP neighbor with the
command neighbor ip-address route-map route-map-name {in | out}
Weight
• Weight is a Cisco-specific BGP attribute that influences route
selection only on the local router—it is NOT shared with other BGP
routers. The higher the weight, the more preferred the route is.
• Local to the router (not advertised to neighbors).
• Higher weight wins during route selection.
• Used for influencing outbound traffic (which route the router prefers
when forwarding packets).
• Can be manually set via route maps or policy configurations.
• Default Value of weight is 0 for receiving the router
• The default Value of weight is 32768 for directly connected routes.
Local Preference
• Local Preference is a BGP attribute used to influence routing
decisions within an Autonomous System (AS). Unlike Weight
(which is local to a router), Local Preference is propagated to all
routers inside the AS,
• Higher Local Preference wins (higher value = more preferred route).
• Propagated across all iBGP routers (but NOT sent to eBGP peers).
• Default Local Preference = 100 in Cisco routers
AS Path
• The AS Path is a fundamental BGP attribute that indicates the
sequence of Autonomous Systems (ASes) a route has traversed
before reaching a destination. It helps routers determine the shortest
path to a network and prevent routing loops.
• Shorter AS Path = More Preferred Route
Multi Exit Discriminator
• MED (Multi-Exit Discriminator) is a BGP attribute used to influence
inbound traffic when multiple links exist between two Autonomous
Systems (ASes). It helps an external AS determine which path to
prefer when entering another AS.
• The default Value is 0
• The maximum Value can be 32 bit Value
• It is also known as metric
• Least MED is preferred