Border Gateway Protocol with Mobility Extensions

The inter-domain routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), was designed for statically configured land-based networks which experience infrequent topology changes. BGP is remarkably successful in the stable “network-of-networks” environment it was designed for and is one of the fundamental protocols of the Internet. Any internetworking scheme that will connect to the Internet today must be compatible with BGP. Cutting-edge military and commercial networks have begun to undercut some of the fundamental assumptions on which BGP is based. Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are becoming more prevalent and will continue their growth. MANETs are characterized by frequent topology changes and geographic movement of nodes. Indeed, in the Mobile Airborne Network and other military applications, entire MANET networks become mobile. The task of maintaining a stable, reliable routing mesh between “networks-of-networks” where the networks themselves are inherently mobile strains BGP to the breaking point. The Border Gateway Protocol with Mobility Extensions (BGP-MX) is the initial phase of an eventual replacement for BGP. BGP-MX will control mobility-induced configuration changes to the underlying BGP protocol. The approach will maintain full compatibility with existing BGP networks, while overcoming the static nature of existing BGP implementations and allow for seamless integration of MANETs into the GiG.