Customer Reviews

BGP4: Inter-Domain Routing in the Internet

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the title suggests, this book is about BGP4, period. Don't expect a big discussion about anything else. There is an obligatory intro to internet routing and TCP/IP, but that's not the focus of the book. What it is is a great first book on BGP for anyone looking to use multiple ISPs for corporate internet access, or looking to implement BGP4 on larger corporate intranets.

The description of the BGP4 routing protocol is extremely detailed and would probably serve as an excellent reference guide. There are enough examples to give you a pretty good idea of how BGP is used, but if you're looking to create your own autonomous system(s), you'll need more information. Check out Bassam Halabi's book - Internet Routing Architectures and talk to your ISPs routing experts. btw: Halabi's book focuses on Cisco's implementation of BGP4 and includes lots of example configs, but that's fine since the internet is dominated by Cisco anyway.

I found this book to be excellent and recommend it to anyone who is interested in implementing BGP4 in their network, or to anyone who just wants to expand their knowledge base. The book is short but that's a positive attribute in this case. Kudos to Mr. Stewart.

Like another reviewer mentioned not to be fooled by its size. This is the best description of BGP4 I've come across so far. Working for a networking company that makes products for the internet core I was asked to educate myself in BGP.

This book covers all the basic BGP path attributes to the advanced topics such as router reflectors, confederations and communities. After reading this book I fully understood what routing policy means and how BGP uses that to make the internet work. BGP is indeed the work horse behind the internet.

I recommend to read this book before indulging yourself in the RFC1771 for more details.

I even the like the simplistic round diagrams throughout the book, a fresh look... something non-cisco <thank god>

And who better to write the book but John himself, one of the brains behind Juniper networks!

This book is about the BGP4 protocol - there's a brief chapter about IP & IP routing, which serves to refresh one's memory, and the rest of the book is about the protocl itself.

This book is not tied to any specific router implementation, but rather describes the protocol 'academicaly' in a clear language and with all the needed details.

It's an excellent book for two purposes - people who want to study the protocol academicaly, e.g. for a course in computer networks or Internet Protocols, and arent into studying the RFCs that sink into the details, and for people who manage routers/networks and want to understand the protocol before reading a lengthier text specific to some implementation.

I was recommended to read this book at a Global Knowledge class on BGP4. This book really picks up where the class itself left off (and this is the only class given on BGP4, by a total of 6 people qualified - cisco doesn't have such a class). The advanced BGP4 section is perfect, and unlike Bassam Halabi's book (which is also required reading), it is consice, minimalist, and cuts right to the heart of the matter. The sections on route reflection were required to understand our global network, and were clearly explained in this book. Best of all, it fits right in your pocket! A must have.

This book accomplishes a great deal in 137 pages. You will learn what BGP is all about and the theory of how to deploy it. You will not learn command line interface syntax for any specific brand of router. However, understanding what the router is supposed to do first, usually helps in configuring it. :-)

Enjoy!

This book is awesome - perhaps the best routing protocol book available. Sure it doesn't tie into any single vendors hardware - but for the theory and architecture of HOW BGP works this book is worth it's weight in gold. It might be only 140 pages but with no padding and no filler this book rocks.

If you are just starting to learn BGP, this book and Halabi's "Internet Routing Architectures" are must-reads. The major difference between this book and Halabi's is this book describes what the standard BGP is, while Halabi's is more Cisco centric. I found it easier to start with this book first. It is very concise and get to the point. While Halabi's focuses on Cisco implementation of BGP routing protocol, it gives a lot of examples and plenty of explanation. Cisco TAC engineers use Halabi's as the BGP bible.

In his Preface, the author pats himself on the back for tackling four challenges at once: writing the book, moving cross-country, starting a new job and a new relationship. He says the book "created more than its fair share of stress" in his life for several months. Unfortunately, the stress shows with increasing obviousness as one nears the end of the book. Take his explanation of what a Singly Homed Subscriber means on page 68. I read the two paragraphs at least three times and tried several approaches: looking for the definition, deducing the definition and inducing the definition, with pencil in hand no less. No cigars. Maybe the author thinks he is beyond a simple declarative definition, but has to show his cleverness by resorting to the annoying ploy of answering a question with a question, a tactic he resorts to again and again whenever the going gets a bit rough. But in case you think single homing is bad, wait till you try wading through multiple homing. IMUX, MEDs, LOCAL-PREFS are all meshed together in one unholy mess. There is no attempt to organize the material here at all. This may be the right approach if there is some insight the author is trying to impart, but somehow I suspect that it is nothing but a mask for his own inability to digest the material. Most of us buy these books to take advantage of the authors' indepth knowledge and experience to decipher and interpret the more detailed RFCs. If that is what you are looking for, stop and reread the RFCs. Stewart is no help.

This is an awesome introduction to BGP. I highly recommend it for anyone just learning BGP and also as a review for those who already know it. Good luck.

The book is composed of four chapter.
Chapter 1: good introduction about interdomain routing (in plain english !)
Chapter 2: the clerical part about bits and bytes of the protocol. This part, although not core, could have been written better.
Chapter 3: about BGP and load balancing. The best part but too sintetycal
Chapter 4: the evolution of the protocolol
every IP net admin intersted in peering and IP Policy must have it