Network Protocols Glossary
What is a network protocol? Protocols are the rules of the road for how data exists and moves on the network. They allow many different systems and computers to communicate.
BGP Protocol
What is BGP Protocol?
The Border Gateway Protocol is a mechanism by which autonomous systems exchange routing and reachability information on the internet. BGP is used by autonomous system boundary routers to advertise the reachability of a given network to other routers on the internet.
What is the purpose of BGP
Internet traffic is directed by routers, and those routers have massive, continuously updated lists of potential routes by which to deliver network packets from origin to destination. They are like Waze for the internet: if one route is too backed up, they choose a different one. But how does a router know which routes and networks are available?
BGP manages routing and communications between networks that have an assigned ASN. Networks that have an assigned ASN are groups of smaller networks containing hundreds or thousands of routers. BGP allows traffic originating from a router assigned to a given ASN to find the most efficient path for traffic to take in order to reach a given destination. This includes routing traffic within a network that has a specific ASN as well between networks that have different ASN designations.