Back when I was studying routing algorithms, trying to understand BGP meant wading through one of the longer RFCs. Stewart's BGP4 makes the protocol a lot more accessible. It begins with a thirty page overview of Internet addressing and routing, covering such things as CIDR, autonomous systems, and the difference between IGPs and EGPs. A fairly dry explanation of the BGP protocol itself is followed by a look at some typical BGP operations (IGP interaction and the various forms of multi-homing) and common BGP extensions (Internal BGP scaling through route reflection or AS confederations, flap dampening, BGP communities, and capabilities negotiation).

BGP4 has broken the unwritten law that all computing books must be large and expensive — it is a slim paperback with a reasonable price-tag. I think it has to be a good investment for anyone running BGP, as well appealing to the simply curious. (As the administrator of a small stub network on the edge of the universe, without even a router under my control, I'm mostly interested in BGP as an abstract protocol and as the basis for Internet policy implementation.)

March 1999

External links:

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Related reviews:

- books about networking
- books published by Addison-Wesley