Protocol Action: A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4) to Draft Standard

[IESG Secretary <[e-mail]>]

The IESG has approved the following two Internet-Drafts:

 1. A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)
	<draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-00.txt>
 2. Application of the Border Gateway Protocol in the Internet
	<draft-ietf-bgp-app-00.txt>

as Draft Standards. The IESG also recommends that:

 1. Experience with the BGP-4 protocol
	<draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-experience-00.txt>
 2. BGP-4 Protocol Analysis
	<draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-analysis-00.txt>

be published as Informational RFCs. The four documents are the product
of the Inter-Domain Routing Working Groups. The IESG contact person is
Joel Halpern.


Technical Summary


BGP-4 is an inter-domain routing protocol.  Revision 4 was created to
add CIDR support to the previous existing revision 3.

The change to BGP-4 from RFC 1654 is to extend the OPEN syntax in a
backwards compatible fashion.  The Authentication Code and Data is
replaced with an Optional Parameters Length and Optional Paramters,
with Authentication as the only defined optional parameter.

The Informational documents cover the operational experience and
performance analysis.  There are four interoperable implementations,
and deployed use of the protocol.  All options have been tested by at
least two vendors.


Working Group Summary

These document reflects extensive discussion within the working group.
They also reflect the implementation experience which has been gained
with these protocols.

Protocol Quality


The Area Director has reviewed the latest updates to the protocol. It
remains a solid, sound, useful, protocol.