BGP selects the best path to a destination based on attributes included in BGP update messages. There are several types of attributes including well-known mandatory attributes that must be included, like AS_PATH, NEXT_HOP and ORIGIN. Optional attributes like LOCAL_PREF, ATOMIC_AGGREGATE and COMMUNITY provide additional control over path selection and route distribution. Attributes allow granular control over traffic forwarding and influence the route selection process.
BGP selects the best path to a destination based on attributes included in BGP update messages. There are several types of attributes including well-known mandatory attributes that must be included, like AS_PATH, NEXT_HOP and ORIGIN. Optional attributes like LOCAL_PREF, ATOMIC_AGGREGATE and COMMUNITY provide additional control over path selection and route distribution. Attributes allow granular control over traffic forwarding and influence the route selection process.
BGP selects the best path to a destination based on attributes included in BGP update messages. There are several types of attributes including well-known mandatory attributes that must be included, like AS_PATH, NEXT_HOP and ORIGIN. Optional attributes like LOCAL_PREF, ATOMIC_AGGREGATE and COMMUNITY provide additional control over path selection and route distribution. Attributes allow granular control over traffic forwarding and influence the route selection process.
BGP selects the best path to a destination based on attributes included in BGP update messages. There are several types of attributes including well-known mandatory attributes that must be included, like AS_PATH, NEXT_HOP and ORIGIN. Optional attributes like LOCAL_PREF, ATOMIC_AGGREGATE and COMMUNITY provide additional control over path selection and route distribution. Attributes allow granular control over traffic forwarding and influence the route selection process.
aarellano@espoch.edu.ec CCNA – CCNP - CCSP BGP Attributes and Path Selection BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routers usually receive multiple paths to the same destination. Like how our IGPs (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF) work, we need to select the best path to each destination.
BGP, selects the best path based on a list of attributes. On
the Internet, it’s more important that you have granular control over how you forward your traffic and to which autonomous systems instead of just going for the shortest path based on a metric. Path Attributes A BGP update message includes a variable-length sequence of path attributes describing the route.
A path attribute consists of three fields:
• Attribute type BGP Attribute Type • Type code 1 ORIGIN • Attribute length • Type code 2 AS_PATH • Type code 3 NEXT_HOP • Attribute value • Type code 4 MULTI_EXIT_DISC • Type code 5 LOCAL_PREF • Type code 6 ATOMIC_AGGREGATE • Type code 7 AGGREGATOR • Type code 8 Community (Cisco-defined) • Type code 9 Originator-ID (Cisco-defined) • Type code 10 Cluster list (Cisco-defined)
Path Attributes Update Message Information
Octets 16 2 1 2 Variable 2 Variable Variable
Unfeasible Withdrawn Attribute Path Marker Length Type NLRI Routes Length Routes Length Attributes Attributes Some attributes are mandatory and automatically included in update messages while others are manually configurable. Attribute EBGP IBGP Well-known AS_PATH Well-known Mandatory Mandatory Automatically Well-known included in NEXT_HOP Well-known Mandatory Mandatory update message Well-known ORIGIN Well-known Mandatory Mandatory
LOCAL_PREF Not allowed Well-known Discretionary
ATOMIC_AGGREGATE Well-known Discretionary Well-known Discretionary Can be
configured Optional to help AGGREGATOR Optional Transitive provide path Transitive control. Optional COMMUNITY Optional Transitive Transitive Optional MULTI_EXIT_DISC Optional Nontransitive Nontransitive Path Attributes There are four different attribute types. • Not all vendors recognize the same BGP attributes. BGP Attributes JUNIPER AS path Attributes
Additional attribute types have been created via supplemental specifications to
extend the protocol • 8, Community (optional transitive) • 9, Originator Id (optional non-transitive) • 10, Cluster list (optional non-transitive) • 11, Destination Path Attribute (optional transitive) BGP Route Selection Process Only Cisco Well-Known Mandatory Attribute is recognized by all implementations of BGP and must appear in a BGP update message. • If missing, a notification error will be generated. Well-known mandatory attributes ensures that all BGP implementations agree on a standard set of attributes. Well-Known Mandatory: AS_PATH The AS_PATH attribute contains a list of AS numbers to reach a route. AS_PATH Loop Detection Well-Known Mandatory: NEXT_HOP The NEXT_HOP attribute indicates the IP address that is to be used to reach a destination. Well-Known Mandatory: ORIGIN The ORIGIN attribute defines the origin of the path which could be: • IGP: • The route is interior to the originating AS and normally occurs when a network command is used to advertise the route via BGP. • An origin of IGP (OSPF, ISIS, EIGRP) is indicated with an “i” in the BGP table. • EGP: • (Obsolete) The route is learned via EGP which is considered a historic routing protocol and is not supported on the Internet. • An origin of EGP is indicated with an “e” in the BGP table. • Incomplete: • The route’s origin is unknown or is learned via some other means and usually occurs when a route is redistributed into BGP. • An incomplete origin is indicated with a “?” in the BGP table. Well-Known Mandatory: ORIGIN R1# show ip bgp i = Route generated BGP table version is 24, local router ID is 172.16.1.2 by the network Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, * valid, > best,command. i - internal Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete
Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 192.208.10.0 192.208.10.5 0 0 300 i *> 172.16.1.0 0.0.0.0 0 32768 i <output omitted>
? = Route generated by unknown method (usually redistributed). Well-Known Discretionary Attribute is recognized by all implementations of BGP but may not be sent in the BGP update message. Well-Known Discretionary: LOCAL_PREF BGP attribute local preference is the second BGP attribute and it can be used to choose the exit path for an autonomous system. Here are the details:
Local preference is the second BGP attribute.
You can use local preference to choose the outbound external BGP path. Local preference is sent to all internal BGP routers in your autonomous system. Not exchanged between external BGP routers. Default value is 100. (Cisco, Juniper, HPE, Huawei) The path with the highest local preference is preferred Well-Known Discretionary: LOCAL_PREF Well-Known Discretionary: LOCAL_PREF Well-Known Discretionary: ATOMIC_AGGREGATE The Atomic Aggregate attribute is used to indicate that routes have been summarized. Attribute is set to either True or False with “true” alerting other BGP routers that multiple destinations have been grouped into a single update. Optional Transitive Attribute may or may not be recognized by all BGP implementations. Because the attribute is transitive, BGP accepts and advertises the attribute even if it is not recognized. Optional Transitive: Community The BGP community attribute can be used to filter incoming or outgoing routes. • BGP routers can tag routes with an indicator (the community of 32 bits) and allow other routers to make decisions based on that tag. • communities are dropped by default. Here are the 4 well known BGP communities: • Internet: advertise the prefix to all BGP neighbors. • No-Advertise: don’t advertise the prefix to any BGP neighbors. • No-Export: don’t advertise the prefix to any eBGP neighbors. • Local-AS: don’t advertise the prefix outside of the sub-AS If a router does not understand the concept of communities, it defers to the next router. • However, if the router does understand the concept, it must be configured to propagate the community; otherwise, Optional Nontransitive Attribute that may or may not be recognized by all BGP implementations. Whether or not the receiving BGP router recognizes the attribute, it is nontransitive and is not passed along to other BGP peers. Optional Nontransitive: MED The Multiple Exit Discriminator (MED) attribute, also called the metric, provides a hint to external neighbors about the preferred path into an AS that has multiple entry points. • Lower MED is preferred over a higher MED! The MED is sent to EBGP peers and those routers propagate the MED within their AS. • The routers within the AS use the MED, but do not pass it on to the next AS. • When the same update is passed on to another AS, the metric will be set back to the default of 0. By using the MED attribute, BGP is the only protocol that can affect how routes are sent into an AS. Optional Nontransitive: MED
Routers B and C include a MED attribute in the updates to
router A. • Router B MED attribute is set to 150. • Router C MED attribute is set to 200. When A receives updates from B and C, it picks router B as the best next hop because of the lower MED. Cisco Weight Attribute The Weight attribute is a Cisco proprietary attribute. Similar in function to the local preference, the weight attribute applies when 1 router has multiple exit points. • Local preference is used when 2+ routers provide multiple exit points. It is configured locally on a router and is not propagated to any other routers. • Routes with a higher weight are preferred when multiple routes exist to the same destination. The weight can have a value from 0 to 65535. • Paths that the router originates have a weight of 32768 by default, and other paths have a weight of 0 by default. Cisco Weight Attribute
Routers B and C learn about network 172.20.0.0 from AS 65250
and propagate the update to router A. • Therefore Router A has two ways to reach 172.20.0.0. Router A sets the weight of updates as follows: • Updates coming from router B are set to 200 • Updates coming from router C are set to 150. Router A uses router B because of the higher weight. Traffic Engineering with BGP Traffic Engineering with BGP Traffic Engineering with BGP Traffic Engineering with BGP
R6 1.1.1.1 AS600 –AS400 – AS100 R6 10.10.10.10 AS600 –AS500 – AS100 R6 11.11.11.11 AS600 –AS500 – AS100 R6 12.12.12.12 AS600 –AS400 – AS100 Using weights to influence BGP routing Using weights to influence BGP routing Using weights to influence BGP routing Using weights to influence BGP routing Using Local Preference to influence BGP routing Using Local Preference to influence BGP routing Using Local Preference to influence BGP routing Lab - Local Preference
Origen Destino Ruta Ida Ruta Regreso
50.50.50.50 8.8.8.8 250-850-670-320 320-500-670-850-250 51.51.51.51 18.18.18.18 250 – 850 – 500 – 320 320-500-670-850-250 52.52.52.52 28.28.28.28 250 – 850 – 670-500-320 320-500-670-850-250 Load Sharing with BGP Load sharing allows a router to distribute the outgoing and incoming traffic among multiple paths. Remember by default, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) selects only a single best path and does not perform load balancing. We can configure the command: “maximum-paths n”, but it only works if the weight, local- pref. and AS-path attributes are the same across the different uplinks.
So how can we do load sharing
if we are multihomed to different ASes? In that case, we must use the command: “bgp bestpath as-path multipath- relax” Load Sharing with BGP Load Sharing with BGP Load Sharing with BGP Load Sharing Unequal Cost with BGP Load Sharing Unequal Cost with BGP
3 Load Sharing Unequal Cost with BGP Load Sharing Unequal Cost with BGP
