How does BGP route reflectors work?

How does BGP route reflectors work?

Using a route reflector, you group routers into clusters, which are identified by numeric identifiers unique to the autonomous system (AS). Within the cluster, you must configure a BGP session from a single router (the route reflector) to each internal peer.

How do I setup a reflector route?

When you configure a route reflector you have to tell the router whether the other IBGP router is a client or non-client. A client is an IBGP router that the route reflector will “reflect” routes to, the non-client is just a regular IBGP neighbor.

Do route reflectors need to peer with each other?

Because clients do not know they are clients, a route reflector can itself be a client of another route reflector. As a result, you can build “nested” route reflection clusters (see Figure 2-40). Although clients cannot peer with routers outside of their own cluster, they can peer with each other.

What is the use of route reflectors?

The Role of Route Reflectors The purpose of route reflectors is to fix that problem. To do so, the route reflector simply instructs R3 that, when it receives an advertisement from an IBGP neighbor (in this case, R2), it should break the rule and advertise to the other members of the system.

How can BGP avoid routing loops?

In BGP there are two loop prevention mechanism:

  1. for EBGP there is AS-Path attribute which states that router will drop BGP advertisement when it sees it own AS number in AS path attribute.
  2. for IBGP there is split horizon rule which states that update sent by one IBGP neighbor should be not send to another IBGP neighbor.

What is BGP split horizon rule?

The BGP split-horizon rule states that a BGP router that receives a BGP route via an iBGP peering shall not advertise that route to another router that is an iBGP peer. By doing so, you will be able to recognize when this is the reason for missing routes.

What is route dampening in BGP?

Route Dampening is a way to suppress flapping routes so that they are “suppressed” instead of being advertised. An unstable network can cause BGP routes to flap, which can cause other BGP routers in the network to constantly reconverge. This wastes valuable CPU cycles and can cause severe problems in the network.

Why BGP Cannot change next hop?

BGP Next Hop Is not Changed on IBGP Sessions All routers within an autonomous system are assumed to be able to reach the same set of subnets (advertised through IGP). Consequently, when an AS edge router propagates external BGP prefixes to internal BGP peers, it does not change the BGP next hop.

How does BGP protocol advertise the route?

BGP uses the network statement in the configuration to identify what networks you wish to advertise from your local networks. BGP then looks in the local routing table and if it finds a network in the routing table that matches the network statement (and matches the mask also) then BGP will advertise it.

How does BGP work?

BGP works by attempting to flood information about each set of destinations (prefix) throughout the Internet. A node will only propagate the information that it chooses to use, and it attaches its own identity to the path so that loops in the path are prevented.

What is BGP peer?

BGP peer. A BGP peer resource (BGPPeer) represents a remote BGP peer with which the node(s) in a Calico cluster will peer. Configuring BGP peers allows you to peer a Calico network with your datacenter fabric (e.g. ToR).