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Networking Advanced

What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)?

The routing protocol that makes the internet work by exchanging routing information between autonomous systems.

BGP is the protocol that connects different networks (ISPs, cloud providers, enterprises) on the internet. Each network (Autonomous System) announces its IP prefixes to neighbors, building a global routing table. BGP chooses paths based on policies, not just shortest distance.

BGP is a path-vector protocol that prevents loops by tracking the full AS path. Misconfigurations can cause route leaks (redirecting traffic) or route hijacks (advertising someone else's IPs). BGP is critical infrastructure — incidents can affect internet connectivity globally.

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Traceroute
A network diagnostic tool that shows the path packets take from source to destination, listing each hop along the way.
DHCP
A protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses and network configuration to devices on a network.
DNS (Domain Name System)
A hierarchical naming system that translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses.
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A protocol that maps IP addresses to physical MAC addresses on a local network segment.
SDN (Software-Defined Networking)
An approach that separates the network control plane from the data plane, enabling centralized, programmable network management.
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