RFC 4271 on A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)

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        RFC 4271

        Title:      A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)
        Author(s):  Y. Rekhter, Ed., T. Li, Ed., S. Hares, Ed.
        Status:     Standards Track
        Date:       January 2006
        Mailbox:    yakov@juniper.net, tony.li@tony.li,
                    skh@nexthop.com
        Pages:      104
        Characters: 222702
        Obsoletes:  1771

        I-D Tag:    draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-26.txt

        URL:        ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc4271.txt

This document discusses the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which is an
inter-Autonomous System routing protocol.

The primary function of a BGP speaking system is to exchange network
reachability information with other BGP systems.  This network
reachability information includes information on the list of
Autonomous Systems (ASes) that reachability information traverses.
This information is sufficient for constructing a graph of AS
connectivity for this reachability from which routing loops may be
pruned, and, at the AS level, some policy decisions may be enforced.

BGP-4 provides a set of mechanisms for supporting Classless
Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR).  These mechanisms
include support for advertising a set of destinations as an IP prefix,
and eliminating the concept of network "class" within BGP.  BGP-4 also
introduces mechanisms that allow aggregation of routes, including
aggregation of AS paths.

This document obsoletes RFC 1771.

This document is a product of the Inter-Domain Routing Working Group
of the IETF.

This is now a Draft Standard Protocol.

This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for
the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions
for improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the
"Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the
standardization state and status of this protocol.  Distribution
of this memo is unlimited.

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Joyce K. Reynolds and Sandy Ginoza
USC/Information Sciences Institute

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