Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGPs) are also called Inter-Domain Routing Protocols (IDRP). EGPs are dynamic routing protocols used by routers to exchange routing information between 2 distinct Autonomous Systems (AS)

Inter-Domain Routing Protocols: 2 Major Protocols

  • Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) - not used because it constrained the topology of Internet to a treelike topology and did not allow topology to become more general
  • Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) - replaced EGP and is in its fourth generation (BGP-4)

Inter-Domain Routing Protocols: Goals

goals of Inter-Domain Routing:

  • find a path from source to destination that is loop free
  • paths must be compliant with policies of various ASs (each AS has its own complex routing policies)
  • must be scalable
  • must be autonomous (the autonomous nature raises trust issues)

Traffic Types

  • local traffic - traffic that originates and terminates within an AS
  • transit traffic - traffic that passes through an AS

Integrating Inter-Domain Routing & Intra-Domain Routing