Using fight-or-flight mechanism to reduce BGP convergence time

Abstract

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the de-facto routing protocol between various autonomous systems (AS) on the internet. In the event of route failure, a considerable delay in BGP convergence has been shown by empirical measurements. During the convergence time, the BGP will repeatedly advertise new routes to some destinations and withdraw old ones until a new path is found, which leading to a stable state. This paper aims to discuss how to speed up the path exploration process by using a fight-or-flight response mechanism. The new path exploration process founded in this study reduced convergence time by 29%.