Border Gateway Protocol

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the foundational routing protocol that enables autonomous networks—including internet service providers, enterprise networks, content delivery networks, and cloud providers—to exchange routing information and direct traffic across the global internet. Within Internet Exchange Point (IXP) infrastructure, BGP sessions between participating networks determine how data packets traverse the interconnection fabric, enabling direct peering that reduces latency and transit costs.

The SUCCESS for BEAD Act defines carrier-neutral IXPs as facilities providing "access to a shared internet exchange switching fabric that enables participating networks to establish Border Gateway Protocol sessions, whether directly between participants or through a shared route server." This statutory language recognizes BGP as the technical mechanism enabling the competitive, open-access interconnection that carrier-neutral infrastructure requires.

For BEAD-funded IXP infrastructure, robust BGP implementation is essential to achieving the latency reduction and traffic localization benefits that justify public investment. Proper BGP configuration keeps regional traffic regional—an email between two addresses in the same state routes through local infrastructure rather than traversing distant national exchange points. Route servers simplify BGP session management by allowing networks to establish a single BGP session with the route server rather than bilateral sessions with every other participant, making IXP participation more accessible for smaller regional providers.