BGP AD Overview

The BGP protocol establishes neighbor relationships between configured peers. An open message is sent after the completion of the three-way TCP handshake. This open message contains information about the BGP peer sending the message. This message contains Autonomous System Number (ASN), BGP version, timer information, and operational parameters, including capabilities. The capabilities of a peer are exchanged using two numerical values: the Address Family Identifier (AFI) and Subsequent Address Family Identifier (SAFI). These numbers are allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). BGP AD uses AFI 65 (L2VPN) and SAFI 25 (BGP VPLS). For a complete list of allocations, see http://www.iana.org/assignments/address-family-numbers and SAFI http://www.iana.org/assignments/safi-namespace.