Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)
The Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) is an exterior routing
protocol used for
exchanging routing information with gateways in other autonomous systems.
Unlike interior protocols, EGP propagates
only reachability indications, not true metrics.
EGP updates contain metrics, called distances, which range from 0
to 255.
gated will only compare EGP distances learned
from the same AS.
Originally EGP reachability information was passed into ARPANET/MILnet ``core'' gateways where the best routes were chosen and passed back out to all connected autonomous systems. As the Internet moved toward a less hierarchical architecture, EGP, an exterior routing protocol which assumes a hierarchical structure, became less effective.
Before EGP sends routing information to a remote router, it must establish an adjacency with that router. This is accomplished by an exchange of Hello (not to be confused with the HELLO protocol, or OSPF HELLO messages) and I Heard You (I-H-U) messages with that router. Computers communicating via EGP are called EGP neighbors, and the exchange of Hello and I-H-U messages is referred to as acquiring a neighbor. Once the neighbor is acquired, the system polls the neighbor for routing information. The neighbor responds by sending an update containing routing information. If the system receives a poll from its neighbor, it responds with its own update packet. When the system receives an update, it includes routes from the update into its routing database. If the neighbor fails to respond to three consecutive polls, gated assumes that the neighbor is down and removes the neighbor's routes from its database.
The EGP protocol is described in RFC 827 and RFC 904.