Loop-freeness in multipath BGP through propagating the longest path

Abstract

The concurrent use of multiple paths through a communications network has the potential to provide many benefits, including better utilisation of the network and increased robustness. A key part of a multipath network architecture is the ability for routing protocols to install multiple routes over multiple paths in the routing table. In this paper we propose changes to local BGP processing that allow a BGP router to use multiple paths concurrently without compromising loop-freeness.