BGP Flashcards
What is BGP
BGP is a dynamic routing protocol that exchanges routes based on a variety of attributes. It is an EGP. Its purpose is to route different AS’s together.
Why does BGP not advertise incremental updates or refresh network advertisements
BGP prefers stability and was designed for neighbours not to change very often. if there was a link flap it would cause recomputation of thousands of routes which would be chaotic.
What is a BGP AS
The autonomous system (AS) within BGP is a collection of network devices under the same network administration. there are 4,294,967,295 ASNs are available.
What is a private BGP AS and what are the range
A private BGP AS is an AS that is not routable on the internet, similar to private addresses.
64,512 - 65,535
4,200,000,000 - 4,294,967,294
Who provides the AS to a company and what should you do if you can’t get one
IANA provides the AS, if they can’t provide one use the same one as your ISP.
What would happen if you use another companies AS on the internet
It would cause packet loss and cause chaos on the internet.
What is a BGP path attribute (PA)
BGP PA’s are associated with each route path, they allow BGP with more control and granularity.
What are the different types of BGP PA’s
Well known mandatory
Well known discretionary
Optional transitive
Optional Non-transitive
What is: well known mandatory PA
a PA that is recognised by all BGP implementations and is required for BGP to work.
What is: well known discretionary PA
A PA that may or may not be included in BGP process.
What is a optional PA and what is the difference between transitive and non-transitive
Optional PA’s are optional in the BGP implementation.
Transitive PA’s stay with the NLRI from AS to AS. Non-transitive are dropped between AS’s.
What is NLRI
Network Layer Reachability Information: Is the BGP routing update that specifies:
Network prefix
prefix length
Any PA’s
How does BGP prevent loops
BGP uses a well known mandatory PA called PA_Path this records all AS numbers the route passes through.
When a BGP router receives a NLRI routing update with their own AS number already listed within the PA_Path the router knows that this is in a loop and therefore drops the packet.
What is multi-protocol BGP
MP BGP adds granularity to the NLRI to define an address family and a sub address family.
What is an AF and SAF in BGP
AFI: address family is IPv4/IPv6
SAFI: sub AF unicast or multicast traffic
Each AF + SAF has its own configuration and respective database.
BGP uses hello packets to discover neighbours dynamically.
True or False
False - BGP can not discover neighbours dynamically it uses IP addresses to define neighbours.
What port does BGP use and does it use TCP/UDP mechanism
TCP port 179.
BGP neighbours connected to the same network use ARP tables to ID IP addresses.
True or False
True.
What is multi-hop BGP
Forming a neighbour relationship with a BGP router more than 1 hop away.
What is the requirement for multi-hop BGP to work
There must be a route installed in the RIB to the remote BGP router.
Either statically or dynamically.
What are the 2 BGP session types
iBGP - internal BGP neighbours established within the same AS (AD200)
eBGP - External BGP, neighbours established within different AS (AD20)
What is the use for iBGP
When transit connectivity is required within an organisation between ISPs etc.. also with multiple routing policies are used.
What is transit connectivity
When all BGP routers in the AS allow inbound traffic on the one side of the AS and output on the other side of the network.
Best case is full neighbour relationships making it a full-mesh.
What is eBGP used for
Connectivity between AS’s. Most commonly used to exchange routes on the internet.
What is the difference in TTL between iBGP and eBGP
iBGP - TTL default is 255 (to allow multi hop)
eBGP - TTL is 1 by default
How many message types does BGP use to communicate and what are they
- OPEN
- UPDATE
- NOTIFICATION
- KEEPALIVE