BIRD Protocols

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Index 6. Protocols
Support
User's guide 1.6 6.1 Babel
Coder's Doc 1.6 Introduction
User's guide 2.0
Coder's Doc 2.0 The Babel protocol ( RFC 6126) is a loop-avoiding distance-vector routing protocol that is robust and
News Archive efficient both in ordinary wired networks and in wireless mesh networks. Babel is conceptually very simple
in its operation and "just works" in its default configuration, though some configuration is possible and in
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some cases desirable.
Wiki
Looking Glass The Babel protocol is dual stack; i.e., it can carry both IPv4 and IPv6 routes over the same IPv6 transport.
For sending and receiving Babel packets, only a link-local IPv6 address is needed.
BIRD does not implement any Babel extensions, but will coexist with implementations using extensions
(and will just ignore extension messages).
Current releases
Configuration
Git server access
Git web interface Babel supports no global configuration options apart from those common to all other protocols, but
supports the following per-interface configuration options:
protocol babel [<name>] {

Sponsored by
ipv4 { <channel config> };
ipv6 { <channel config> };
interface <interface pattern> {
type <wired|wireless>;
rxcost <number>;
limit <number>;
hello interval <time>;
update interval <time>;
port <number>;
tx class|dscp <number>;
tx priority <number>;
rx buffer <number>;
tx length <number>;
check link <switch>;
next hop ipv4 <address>;
next hop ipv6 <address>;
};
}
ipv4|ipv6 channel config
The supported channels are IPv4 and IPv6.

type wired|wireless
This option specifies the interface type: Wired or wireless. On wired interfaces a neighbor is
considered unreachable after a small number of Hello packets are lost, as described by limit
option. On wireless interfaces the ETX link quality estimation technique is used to compute the
metrics of routes discovered over this interface. This technique will gradually degrade the metric of
routes when packets are lost rather than the more binary up/down mechanism of wired type links.
Default: wired.
rxcost num
This option specifies the nominal RX cost of the interface. The ef fective neighbor costs for route
metrics will be computed from this value with a mechanism determined by the interface type. Note
that in contrast to other routing protocols like RIP or OSPF , the rxcost specifies the cost of RX
instead of TX, so it af fects primarily neighbor s' route selection and not local route selection. Default:
96 for wired interfaces, 256 for wireless.
limit num
BIRD keeps track of received Hello messages from each neighbor to establish neighbor
reachability. For wired type interfaces, this op tion specifies how many of last 16 hellos have to be
correctly received in order to neighbor is assumed to be up. The option is ignored on wireless type
interfaces, where gradual cost degradation is used instead of sharp limit. Default: 12.
hello interval time s|ms
Interval at which periodic Hello messages are sent on this interface, with time units. Default: 4
seconds.
update interval time s|ms
Interval at which periodic (full) updates are sent, with time units. Default: 4 times the hello interval.
port number
This option selects an UDP port to operate on. The default is to operate on port 6696 as specified
in the Babel RFC.
tx class|dscp|priority number
These options specify the ToS/DiffServ/Traffic class/Priority of the outgoing Babel packets . See tx
class common option for detailed description.
rx buffer number
This option specifies the size of buf fers used for packet processing. The buffer size should be
bigger than maximal size of received packets. The default value is the interface MTU, and the value
will be clamped to a minimum of 512 bytes + IP packet overhead.
tx length number
This option specifies the maximum length of generated Babel packets. T o avoid IP fragmentation, it
should not exceed the interface MTU value. The default value is the interface MTU value, and the
value will be clamped to a minimum of 512 bytes + IP packet overhead.
check link switch
If set, the hardware link state (as reported by OS) is taken into consideration. When the link
disappears (e.g. an ethernet cable is unplugged), neighbors are immediately considered
unreachable and all routes received from them are withdrawn. It is possible that some hardware
drivers or platforms do not implement this feature. Default: yes.
next hop ipv4 address
Set the next hop address advertised for IPv4 routes advertised on this interface. Default: the
preferred IPv4 address of the interface.
next hop ipv6 address
Set the next hop address advertised for IPv6 routes advertised on this interface. If not set, the
same link-local address that is used as the source for Babel packets will be used. In normal
operation, it should not be necessary to set this option.
Attributes
Babel defines just one attribute: the internal babel metric of the route. It is exposed as the babel_metric
attribute and has range from 1 to infinity (65535).
Example
protocol babel {
interface "eth*" {
type wired;
};
interface "wlan0", "wlan1" {
type wireless;
hello interval 1;
rxcost 512;
};
interface "tap0";
# This matches the default of babeld: redistribute all addresses

# configured on local interfaces, plus re-distribute all routes received
# from other babel peers.
ipv4 {
export where (source = RTS_DEVICE) || (source = RTS_BABEL);
};
ipv6 {
export where (source = RTS_DEVICE) || (source = RTS_BABEL);
};
}
Known issues
When retracting a route, Babel generates an unreachable route for a little while (according to RFC). The
interaction of this behavior with other protocols is not well tested and strange things may happen.
6.2 BFD
Introduction
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is not a routing protocol itself, it is an independent tool providing
liveness and failure detection. Routing protocols like OSPF and BGP use integrated periodic "hello"
messages to monitor liveness of neighbors, but detection times of these mechanisms are high (e.g. 40
seconds by default in OSPF, could be set dow n to several seconds). BFD of fers universal, fast and low-
overhead mechanism for failure detection, which could be attached to any routing protocol in an advisory
role.
BFD consists of mostly independent BFD sessions. Each session monitors an unicast bidirectional path
between two BFD-enabled routers. This is done by periodically sending control packets in both directions.
BFD does not handle neighbor discovery , BFD sessions are created on demand by request of other
protocols (like OSPF or BGP), which supply appropriate information like IP addresses and associated
interfaces. When a session changes its state, these protocols are notified and act accordingly (e.g. break
an OSPF adjacency when the BFD session went down).
BIRD implements basic BFD behavior as defined in RFC 5880 (some advanced features like the echo
mode or authentication are not implemented), IP transport for BFD as defined in RFC 5881 and RFC 5883
and interaction with client protocols as defined in RFC 5882. We currently support at most one protocol
instance.
BFD packets are sent with a dynamic source port number . Linux systems use by default a bit dif ferent
dynamic port range than the IANA approved one (49152-65535). If you experience problems with
compatibility, please adjust /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range
Configuration
BFD configuration consists mainly of multiple definitions of interfaces. Most BFD config options are
session specific. When a new session is requested and dynamically created, it is configured from one of
these definitions. For sessions to directly connected neighbors, interface definitions are chosen based on
the interface associated with the session, while multihop definition is used for multihop sessions. If no
definition is relevant, the session is just created with the default configuration. Therefore, an empty BFD
configuration is often suf ficient.
Note that to use BFD for other protocols like OSPF or BGP , these protocols also have to be configured to
request BFD sessions, usually by bfd option.
Some of BFD session options require time value, which has to be specified with the appropriate unit: num
s|ms|us. Although microseconds are allowed as units, practical minimum values are usually in order of tens
of milliseconds.
protocol bfd [<name>] {

interval <time>;
min rx interval <time>;
min tx interval <time>;
idle tx interval <time>;
multiplier <num>;
passive <switch>;
authentication none;
authentication simple;
authentication [meticulous] keyed md5|sha1;
password "<text>";
password "<text>" {
id <num>;
generate from "<date>";
generate to "<date>";
accept from "<date>";
accept to "<date>";
from "<date>";
to "<date>";
};
};
multihop {
interval <time>;
min rx interval <time>;
min tx interval <time>;
idle tx interval <time>;
multiplier <num>;
passive <switch>;
};
neighbor <ip> [dev "<interface>"] [local <ip>] [multihop <switch>];
}
interface pattern [, ...] { options }
Interface definitions allow to specify options for sessions associated with such interfaces and also
may contain interface specific options. See interface common option for a detailed description of
interface patterns. Note that contrary to the behavior of interface definitions of other protocols, BFD
protocol would accept sessions (in default configuration) even on interfaces not covered by such
definitions.
multihop { options }
Multihop definitions allow to specify options for multihop BFD sessions, in the same manner as
interface definitions are used for directly connected sessions. Currently only one such definition
(for all multihop sessions) could be used.
neighbor ip [dev "interface"] [local ip] [multihop switch]
BFD sessions are usually created on demand as requested by other protocols (like OSPF or BGP).
This option allows to explicitly add a BFD session to the specified neighbor regardless of such
requests.
The session is identified by the IP address of the neighbor , with optional specification of used
interface and local IP. By default the neighbor must be directly connected, unless the sess ion is
configured as multihop. Note that local IP must be specified for multihop sessions.
Session specific options (part of interface and multihop definitions):
interval time
BFD ensures availability of the forwarding path associated with the session by periodically sending
BFD control packets in both directions. The rate of such packets is controlled by two options, min rx
interval and min tx interval(see below). This option is just a shorthand to set both of these
options together.
min rx interval time
This option specifies the minimum RX interval, which is announced to the neighbor and used there
to limit the neighbor's rate of generated BFD control packets. Default: 10 ms.
min tx interval time
This option specifies the desired TX interval, which controls the rate of generated BFD control
packets (together with min rx intervalannounced by the neighbor). Note that this value is used
only if the BFD session is up, otherwise the value of idle tx intervalis used instead. Default: 100
ms.
idle tx interval time
In order to limit unnecessary traf fic in cases where a neighbor is not available or not running BFD,
the rate of generated BFD control packets is lower when the BFD session is not up. This option
specifies the desired TX interval in such cases instead of min tx interval. Default: 1 s.
multiplier num
Failure detection time for BFD sessions is based on established rate of BFD control packets ( min
rx/tx interval) multiplied by this multiplier , which is essentially (ignoring jitter) a number of missed
packets after which the session is declared down. Note that rates and multipliers could be dif ferent
in each direction of a BFD session. Default: 5.
passive switch
Generally, both BFD session endpoints try to establish the session by sending control packets to
the other side. This option allows to enable passive mode, which means that the router does not
send BFD packets until it has received one from the other side. Default: disabled.
authentication none
No passwords are sent in BFD packets. This is the default value.

authentication simple
Every packet carries 16 bytes of password. Received packets lacking this password are ignored.
This authentication mechanism is very weak.
authentication [meticulous] keyed md5|sha1
An authentication code is appended to each packet. The cryptographic algorithm is keyed MD5 or
keyed SHA-1. Note that the algorithm is common for all keys (on one interface), in contrast to
OSPF or RIP, where it is a per-key option. Passwords (keys) are not sent open via networ k.
The meticulous variant means that cryptographic sequence numbers are increased for each sent
packet, while in the basic variant they are increased about once per second. Generally , the
meticulous variant offers better resistance to replay atta cks but may require more computation.
password "text"
Specifies a password used for authentication. See password common option for detailed
description. Note that password option algorithm is not available in BFD protocol. The algorithm is
selected by authenticationoption for all passwords.
Example
protocol bfd {
interface "eth*" {
min rx interval 20 ms;
min tx interval 50 ms;
idle tx interval 300 ms;
};
interface "gre*" {
interval 200 ms;
multiplier 10;
passive;
};
multihop {
interval 200 ms;
multiplier 10;
};
neighbor 192.168.1.10;
neighbor 192.168.2.2 dev "eth2";
neighbor 192.168.10.1 local 192.168.1.1 multihop;
}
6.3 BGP
The Border Gateway Protocol is the routing protocol used for backbone level routing in the today's
Internet. Contrary to other protocols, its convergence does not rely on all routers following the same rules
for route selection, making it possible to implement any routing policy at any router in the network, the only
restriction being that if a router advertises a route, it must accept and forward packets according to it.
BGP works in terms of autonomous systems (often abbreviated as AS). Each AS is a part of the network
with common management and common routing policy . It is identified by a unique 16-bit number (ASN).
Routers within each AS usually exchange AS-internal routing information with each other using an interior
gateway protocol (IGP, such as OSPF or RIP). Boundary routers at the border of the AS c ommunicate
global (inter-AS) network reachability information with their neighbors in the neighboring AS'es via exterior
BGP (eBGP) and redistribute received information to other routers in the AS via interior BGP (iBGP).
Each BGP router sends to its neighbors updates of the parts of its routing table it wishes to export along
with complete path information (a list of AS'es the packet will travel through if it uses the particular route) in
order to avoid routing loops.
Supported standards:
RFC 4271 - Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP)

RFC 1997 - BGP Communities Attribute
RFC 2385 - Protection of BGP Sessions via TCP MD5 Signature
RFC 2545 - Use of BGP Multiprotocol Extensions for IPv6
RFC 2918 - Route Refresh Capability
RFC 3107 - Carrying Label Information in BGP
RFC 4360 - BGP Extended Communities Attribute
RFC 4364 - BGP/MPLS IPv4 V irtual Private Networks
RFC 4456 - BGP Route Reflection
RFC 4486 - Subcodes for BGP Cease Notification Message
RFC 4659 - BGP/MPLS IPv6 V irtual Private Networks
RFC 4724 - Graceful Restart Mechanism for BGP
RFC 4760 - Multiprotocol extensions for BGP
RFC 4798 - Connecting IPv6 Islands over IPv4 MPLS
RFC 5065 - AS confederations for BGP
RFC 5082 - Generalized TTL Security Mechanism
RFC 5492 - Capabilities Advertisement with BGP
RFC 5549 - Advertising IPv4 NLRI with an IPv6 Next Hop
RFC 5575 - Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules
RFC 5668 - 4-Octet AS Specific BGP Extended Community
RFC 6286 - AS-Wide Unique BGP Identifier
RFC 6608 - Subcodes for BGP Finite State Machine Error
RFC 6793 - BGP Support for 4-Octet AS Numbers
RFC 7313 - Enhanced Route Refresh Capability for BGP
RFC 7606 - Revised Error Handling for BGP UPDA TE Messages
RFC 7911 - Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP
RFC 7947 - Internet Exchange BGP Route Server
RFC 8092 - BGP Large Communities Attribute
RFC 8203 - BGP Administrative Shutdown Communication
Route selection rules
BGP doesn't have any simple metric, so the rules for selection of an optimal route among multiple BGP
routes with the same preference are a bit more complex and they are implemented according to the
following algorithm. It starts the first rule, if there are more "best" routes, then it uses the second rule to
choose among them and so on.
Prefer route with the highest Local Preference attribute.

Prefer route with the shortest AS path.
Prefer IGP origin over EGP and EGP origin over incomplete.
Prefer the lowest value of the Multiple Exit Discriminator .
Prefer routes received via eBGP over ones received via iBGP .
Prefer routes with lower internal distance to a boundary router .
Prefer the route with the lowest value of router ID of the advertising router .
IGP routing table
BGP is mainly concerned with global network reachability and with routes to other autonomous systems.
When such routes are redistributed to routers in the AS via BGP, they contain IP addresses of a boundary
routers (in route attribute NEXT_HOP). BGP depends on existing IGP routing table with AS-internal routes
to determine immediate next hops for routes and to know their internal distances to boundary routers for
the purpose of BGP route selection. In BIRD, there is usually one routing table used for both IGP routes
and BGP routes.
Protocol configuration
Each instance of the BGP corresponds to one neighboring router . This allows to set routing policy and all
the other parameters dif ferently for each neig hbor using the following configuration parameters:
local [ip] as number
Define which AS we are part of. (Note that contrary to other IP routers, BIRD is able to act as a
router located in multiple AS'es simultaneously , but in such cases you need to tweak the BGP paths
manually in the filters to get consistent behavior .) Optional ip argument specifies a source address,
equivalent to the source addressoption (see below). This parameter is mandatory .
neighbor [ip] [port number] [as number]
Define neighboring router this instance will be talking to and what AS it is located in. In case the
neighbor is in the same AS as we are, we automatically switch to iBGP . Optionally, the remote port
may also be specified. The parameter may be used multiple times with dif ferent sub-options (e.g.,
both neighbor 10.0.0.1 as 65000;and neighbor 10.0.0.1; neighbor as 65000;are valid). This
parameter is mandatory.
interface string
Define interface we should use for link-local BGP IPv6 sessions. Interface can also be specified as
a part of neighbor address(e.g., neighbor fe80::1234%eth0 as 65000; ). The option may also be used
for non link-local sessions when it is necessary to explicitly specify an interface, but only for direct
(not multihop) sessions.
direct
Specify that the neighbor is directly connected. The IP address of the neighbor must be from a
directly reachable IP range (i.e. associated with one of your router's interfaces), otherwise the BGP
session wouldn't start but it would wait for such interface to appear . The alternative is the multihop
option. Default: enabled for eBGP .
multihop [number]
Configure multihop BGP session to a neighbor that isn't directly connected. Accurately , this option
should be used if the configured neighbor IP address does not match with any local network
subnets. Such IP address have to be reachable through system routing table. The alternative is the
direct option. For multihop BGP it is recommended to explicitly configure the source address to
have it stable. Optional number argument can be used to specify the number of hops (used for TTL).
Note that the number of networks (edges) in a path is counted; i.e., if two BGP speakers are
separated by one router , the number of hops is 2. Default: enabled for iBGP .
source address ip
Define local address we should use for next hop calculation and as a source address for the BGP
session. Default: the address of the local end of the interface our neighbor is connected to.
strict bind switch

Specify whether BGP listening socket should be bound to a specific local address (the same as the
source address) and associated interface, or to all addresses. Binding to a specific address could be
useful in cases like running multiple BIRD instances on a machine, each using its IP address. Note
that listening sockets bound to a specific address and to all addresses collide, therefore either all
BGP protocols (of the same address family and using the same local port) should have set strict
bind, or none of them. Default: disabled.
check link switch
BGP could use hardware link state into consideration. If enabled, BIRD tracks the link state of the
associated interface and when link disappears (e.g. an ethernet cable is unplugged), the BGP
session is immediately shut down. Note that this option cannot be used with multihop BGP . Default:
enabled for direct BGP, disabled otherwise.
bfd switch
BGP could use BFD protocol as an advisory mechanism for neighbor liveness and failure detection.
If enabled, BIRD setups a BFD session for the BGP neighbor and tracks its liveness by it. This has
an advantage of an order of magnitude lower detection times in case of failure. Note that BFD
protocol also has to be configured, see BFD section for details. Default: disabled.
ttl security switch
Use GTSM (RFC 5082 - the generalized TTL security mechanism). GTSM protects against spoofed
packets by ignoring received packets with a smaller than expected TTL. T o work properly, GTSM
have to be enabled on both sides of a BGP session. If both ttl security and multihop options are
enabled, multihop option should specify proper hop value to compute expected TTL. Kernel support
required: Linux: 2.6.34+ (IPv4), 2.6.35+ (IPv6), BSD: since long ago, IPv4 only . Note that full (ICMP
protection, for example) RFC 5082 support is provided by Linux only . Default: disabled.
password string
Use this password for MD5 authentication of BGP sessions ( RFC 2385). When used on BSD
systems, see also setkey option below. Default: no authentication.
setkey switch
On BSD systems, keys for TCP MD5 authentication are stored in the global SA/SP database, which
can be accessed by external utilities (e.g. setkey(8)). BIRD configures security associations in the
SA/SP database automatically based on password options (see above), this option allows to disable
automatic updates by BIRD when manual configuration by external utilities is preferred. Note that
automatic SA/SP database updates are currently implemented only for FreeBSD. Passwords have
to be set manually by an external utility on NetBSD and OpenBSD. Default: enabled (ignored on
non-FreeBSD).
passive switch
Standard BGP behavior is both initiating outgoing connections and accepting incoming
connections. In passive mode, outgoing connections are not initiated. Default: of f.
confederation number
BGP confederations ( RFC 5065) are collections of autonomous systems that act as one entity to
external systems, represented by one confederation identifier (instead of AS numbers). This option
allows to enable BGP confederation behavior and to specify the local confederation identifier . When
BGP confederations are used, all BGP speakers that are members of the BGP confederation
should have the same confederation identifier configured. Default: 0 (no confederation).
confederation member switch
When BGP confederations are used, this option allows to specify whether the BGP neighbor is a
member of the same confederation as the local BGP speaker. The option is unnecessary (and
ignored) for IBGP sessions, as the same AS number implies the same confederation. Default: no.
rr client
Be a route reflector and treat the neighbor as a route reflection client. Default: disabled.
rr cluster id IPv4 address
Route reflectors use cluster id to avoid route reflection loops. When there is one route reflector in a
cluster it usually uses its router id as a cluster id, but when there are more route reflectors in a
cluster, these need to be configured (using this option) to use a common cluster id. Clients in a
cluster need not know their cluster id and this option is not allowed for them. Default: the same as
router id.
rs client
Be a route server and treat the neighbor as a route server client. A route server is used as a
replacement for full mesh EBGP routing in Internet exchange points in a similar way to route
reflectors used in IBGP routing. BIRD does not implement obsoleted RFC 1863, but uses ad-hoc
implementation, which behaves like plain EBGP but reduces modifications to advertised route
attributes to be transparent (for example does not prepend its AS number to AS P ATH attribute and
keeps MED attribute). Default: disabled.
allow bgp_local_pref switch
A standard BGP implementation do not send the Local Preference attribute to eBGP neighbors and
ignore this attribute if received from eBGP neighbors, as per RFC 4271. When this option is
enabled on an eBGP session, this attribute will be sent to and accepted from the peer , which is
useful for example if you have a setup like in RFC 7938. The option does not af fect iBGP sessions.
Default: off.
allow local as [number]
BGP prevents routing loops by rejecting received routes with the local AS number in the AS path.
This option allows to loose or disable the check. Optional number argument can be used to specify
the maximum number of local ASNs in the AS path that is allowed for received routes. When the
option is used without the argument, the check is completely disabled and you should ensure loop-
free behavior by some other means. Default: 0 (no local AS number allowed).
enable route refresh switch
After the initial route exchange, BGP protocol uses incremental updates to keep BGP speakers
synchronized. Sometimes (e.g., if BGP speaker changes its import filter , or if there is suspicion of
inconsistency) it is necessary to do a new complete route exchange. BGP protocol extension Route
Refresh (RFC 2918) allows BGP speaker to request re-advertisement of all routes from its
neighbor. BGP protocol extension Enhanced Route Refresh ( RFC 7313) specifies explicit begin
and end for such exchanges, therefore the receiver can remove stale routes that were not
advertised during the exchange. This option specifies whether BIRD advertises these capabilities
and supports related procedures. Note that even when disabled, BIRD can send route refresh
requests. Default: on.
graceful restart switch|aware
When a BGP speaker restarts or crashes, neighbors will discard all received paths from the
speaker, which disrupts packet forwarding even when the forwarding plane of the speaker remains
intact. RFC 4724 specifies an optional graceful restart mechanism to alleviate this issue. This
option controls the mechanism. It has three states: Disabled, when no support is provided. A ware,
when the graceful restart support is announced and the support for restarting neighbors is provided,
but no local graceful restart is allowed (i.e. receiving-only role). Enabled, when the full graceful
restart support is provided (i.e. both restarting and receiving role). Restarting role could be also
configured per-channel. Note that proper support for local graceful restart requires also
configuration of other protocols. Default: aware.
graceful restart time number
The restart time is announced in the BGP graceful restart capability and specifies how long the
neighbor would wait for the BGP session to re-establish after a restart before deleting stale routes.
Default: 120 seconds.
interpret communities switch
RFC 1997 demands that BGP speaker should process well-known communities like no-export
(65535, 65281) or no-advertise (65535, 65282). For example, received route carrying a no-adverise
community should not be advertised to any of its neighbors. If this option is enabled (which is by
default), BIRD has such behavior automatically (it is evaluated when a route is exported to the BGP
protocol just before the export filter). Otherwise, this integrated processing of well-known
communities is disabled. In that case, similar behavior can be implemented in the export filter .
Default: on.
enable as4 switch
BGP protocol was designed to use 2B AS numbers and was extended later to allow 4B AS number .
BIRD supports 4B AS extension, but by disabling this option it can be persuaded not to advertise it
and to maintain old-style sessions with its neighbors. This might be useful for circumventing bugs in
neighbor's implementation of 4B AS extension. Even when disabled (of f), BIRD behaves internally
as AS4-aware BGP router . Default: on.
enable extended messagesswitch
The BGP protocol uses maximum message length of 4096 bytes. This option provides an extension
to allow extended messages with length up to 65535 bytes. Default: of f.
capabilities switch
Use capability advertisement to advertise optional capabilities. This is standard behavior for newer
BGP implementations, but there might be some older BGP implementations that reject such
connection attempts. When disabled (of f), features that request it (4B AS support) are also
disabled. Default: on, with automatic fallback to of f when received capability-related error .
advertise ipv4 switch
Advertise IPv4 multiprotocol capability . This is not a correct behavior according to the strict
interpretation of RFC 4760, but it is widespread and required by some BGP implementations (Cisco
and Quagga). This option is relevant to IPv4 mode with enabled capability advertisement only .
Default: on.
disable after error switch
When an error is encountered (either locally or by the other side), disable the instance automatically
and wait for an administrator to fix the problem manually . Default: off.
hold time number
Time in seconds to wait for a Keepalive mess age from the other side before considering the
connection stale. Default: depends on agreement with the neighboring router , we prefer 240
seconds if the other side is willing to accept it.
startup hold time number
Value of the hold timer used before the route rs have a chance to exchange open messages and
agree on the real value. Default: 240 seconds.
keepalive time number
Delay in seconds between sending of two consecutive Keepalive messages. Default: One third of
the hold time.
connect delay time number
Delay in seconds between protocol startup and the first attempt to connect. Default: 5 seconds.
connect retry time number
Time in seconds to wait before retrying a faile d attempt to connect. Default: 120 seconds.
error wait time number,number

Minimum and maximum delay in seconds between a protocol failure (either local or reported by the
peer) and automatic restart. Doesn't apply when disable after erroris configured. If consecutive
errors happen, the delay is increased exponentially until it reaches the maximum. Default: 60, 300.
error forget time number
Maximum time in seconds between two protocol failures to treat them as a error sequence which
makes error wait timeincrease exponentially. Default: 300 seconds .
path metric switch
Enable comparison of path lengths when deciding which BGP route is the best one. Default: on.
med metric switch
Enable comparison of MED attributes (during best route selection) even between routes received
from different ASes. This may be useful if all MED attributes contain some consistent metric,
perhaps enforced in import filters of AS boundary routers. If this option is disabled, MED attributes
are compared only if routes are received from the same AS (which is the standard behavior).
Default: off.
deterministic med switch
BGP route selection algorithm is often viewed as a comparison between individual routes (e.g. if a
new route appears and is better than the current best one, it is chosen as the new best one). But
the proper route selection, as specified by RFC 4271, cannot be fully implemented in that way . The
problem is mainly in handling the MED attribute. BIRD, by default, uses an simplification based on
individual route comparison, which in some cases may lead to temporally dependent behavior (i.e.
the selection is dependent on the order in which routes appeared). This option enables a dif ferent
(and slower) algorithm implementing proper RFC 4271 route selection, which is deterministic.
Alternative way how to get deterministic behavior is to use med metric option. This option is
incompatible with sorted tables. Default: off.
igp metric switch
Enable comparison of internal distances to boundary routers during best route selection. Default:
on.
prefer older switch
Standard route selection algorithm breaks ties by comparing router IDs. This changes the behavior
to prefer older routes (when both are external and from dif ferent peer). For details, see RFC 5004.
Default: off.
default bgp_med number
Value of the Multiple Exit Discriminator to be used during route selection when the MED attribute is
missing. Default: 0.
default bgp_local_pref number
A default value for the Local Preference attribute. It is used when a new Local Preference attribute
is attached to a route by the BGP protocol itself (for example, if a route is received through eBGP
and therefore does not have such attribute). Default: 100 (0 in pre-1.2.0 versions of BIRD).
Channel configuration
BGP supports several AFIs and SAFIs over one connection. Every AFI/SAFI announced to the peer
corresponds to one channel. The table of supported AFI/SAFIs together with their appropriate channels
follows.
Channel name Table nettype IGP table allowed AFI SAFI ipv4 ipv4 ipv4 and ipv6 1 1 ipv6 ipv6 ipv4 and
ipv6 2 1 ipv4 multicastipv4 ipv4 and ipv6 1 2 ipv6 multicastipv6 ipv4 and ipv6 2 2 ipv4 mpls ipv4 ipv4
and ipv6 1 4 ipv6 mpls ipv6 ipv4 and ipv6 2 4 vpn4 mpls vpn4 ipv4 and ipv6 1 128 vpn6 mpls vpn6 ipv4 and
ipv6 2 128 vpn4 multicastvpn4 ipv4 and ipv6 1 129 vpn6 multicastvpn6 ipv4 and ipv6 2 129 flow4 flow4 ---
1 133 flow6 flow6 --- 2 133
BGP's channels have additional config options (together with the common ones):
next hop keep
Forward the received Next Hop attribute even in situations where the local address should be used
instead, like when the route is sent to an interface with a dif ferent subnet. Default: disabled.
next hop self
Avoid calculation of the Next Hop attribute an d always advertise our own source address as a next
hop. This needs to be used only occasionally to circumvent misconfigurations of other routers.
Default: disabled.
next hop address ip
Avoid calculation of the Next Hop attribute an d always advertise this address as a next hop.
missing lladdr self|drop|ignore
Next Hop attribute in BGP-IPv6 sometimes contains just the global IPv6 address, but sometimes it
has to contain both global and link-local IPv6 addresses. This option specifies what to do if BIRD
have to send both addresses but does not know link-local address. This situation might happen
when routes from other protocols are exported to BGP , or when improper updates are received
from BGP peers. self means that BIRD advertises its own local address instead. drop means that
BIRD skips that prefixes and logs error . ignore means that BIRD ignores the problem and sends
just the global address (and therefore forms improper BGP update). Default: self, unless BIRD is
configured as a route server (option rs client), in that case default is ignore, because route servers
usually do not forward packets themselves.
gateway direct|recursive
For received routes, their gw (immediate next hop) attribute is computed from received bgp_next_hop
attribute. This option specifies how it is computed. Direct mode means that the IP address from
bgp_next_hop is used if it is directly reachable, otherwise the neighbor IP address is used. Recursive
mode means that the gateway is computed by an IGP routing table lookup for the IP address from
bgp_next_hop. Note that there is just one level of indirection in recursive mode - the route obtained
by the lookup must not be recursive itself, to prevent mutually recursive routes.
Recursive mode is the behavior specified by the BGP standard. Direct mode is simpler , does not
require any routes in a routing table, and was used in older versions of BIRD, but does not handle
well nontrivial iBGP setups and multihop. Recursive mode is incompatible with sorted tables.
Default: direct for direct sessions, recursive for multihop sessions.
igp table name
Specifies a table that is used as an IGP routing table. The type of this table must be as allowed in
the table above. This option is allowed once for every allowed table type. Default: the same as the
main table the channel is connected to (if eligible).
secondary switch
Usually, if an export filter rejects a selected ro ute, no other route is propagated for that network.
This option allows to try the next route in order until one that is accepted is found or all routes for
that network are rejected. This can be used for route servers that need to propagate dif ferent tables
to each client but do not want to have these tables explicitly (to conserve memory). This option
requires that the connected routing table is sorted. Default: off.
add paths switch|rx|tx
Standard BGP can propagate only one path (route) per destination network (usually the selected
one). This option controls the add-path protocol extension, which allows to advertise any number of
paths to a destination. Note that to be active, add-path has to be enabled on both sides of the BGP
session, but it could be enabled separately for RX and TX direction. When active, all available
routes accepted by the export filter are advertised to the neighbor . Default: off.
graceful restart switch
Although BGP graceful restart is configured mainly by protocol-wide options, it is possible to

configure restarting role per AFI/SAFI pair by this channel option. The option is ignored if graceful
restart is disabled by protocol-wide option. Default: of f in aware mode, on in full mode.
Attributes
BGP defines several route attributes. Some of them (those marked with ` I' in the table below) are
available on internal BGP connections only , some of them (marked with ` O') are optional.
bgppath bgp_path/
Sequence of AS numbers describing the AS path the packet will travel through when forwarded
according to the particular route. In case of internal BGP it doesn't contain the number of the local
AS.
int bgp_local_pref/ [I]
Local preference value used for selection among multiple BGP routes (see the selection rules
above). It's used as an additional metric which is propagated through the whole local AS.
int bgp_med/ [O]
The Multiple Exit Discriminator of the route is an optional attribute which is used on external (inter-
AS) links to convey to an adjacent AS the optimal entry point into the local AS. The received
attribute is also propagated over internal BGP links. The attribute value is zeroed when a route is
exported to an external BGP instance to ensure that the attribute received from a neighboring AS is
not propagated to other neighboring ASes. A new value might be set in the export filter of an
external BGP instance. See RFC 4451 for further discussion of BGP MED attribute.
enum bgp_origin/
Origin of the route: either ORIGIN_IGP if the route has originated in an interior routing protocol or
ORIGIN_EGP if it's been imported from the EGP protocol (nowadays it seems to be obsolete) or
ORIGIN_INCOMPLETEif the origin is unknown.
ip bgp_next_hop/
Next hop to be used for forwarding of packets to this destination. On internal BGP connections, it's
an address of the originating router if it's inside the local AS or a boundary router the packet will
leave the AS through if it's an exterior route, so each BGP speaker within the AS has a chance to
use the shortest interior path possible to this point.
void bgp_atomic_aggr/ [O]
This is an optional attribute which carries no value, but the sole presence of which indicates that the
route has been aggregated from multiple routes by some router on the path from the originator .
clist bgp_community/ [O]
List of community values associated with the route. Each such value is a pair (represented as a
pair data type inside the filters) of 16-bit integers, the first of them containing the number of the AS
which defines the community and the second one being a per-AS identifier . There are lots of uses
of the community mechanism, but generally they are used to carry policy information like "don't
export to USA peers". As each AS can define its own routing policy , it also has a complete freedom
about which community attributes it defines and what will their semantics be.
eclist bgp_ext_community/ [O]
List of extended community values associated with the route. Extended communities have similar
usage as plain communities, but they have an extended range (to allow 4B ASNs) and a nontrivial
structure with a type field. Individual community values are represented using an ec data type inside
the filters.
lclist bgp_large_community [O]
List of large community values associated with the route. Large BGP communities is another
variant of communities, but contrary to extended communities they behave very much the same
way as regular communities, just larger -- they are uniform untyped triplets of 32bit numbers.
Individual community values are represented using an lc data type inside the filters.
quad bgp_originator_id/ [I, O]
This attribute is created by the route reflector when reflecting the route and contains the router ID of
the originator of the route in the local AS.
clist bgp_cluster_list/ [I, O]
This attribute contains a list of cluster IDs of route reflectors. Each route reflector prepends its
cluster ID when reflecting the route.
Example
protocol bgp {
local 198.51.100.14 as 65000; # Use a private AS number
neighbor 198.51.100.130 as 64496; # Our neighbor ...
multihop; # ... which is connected indirectly
ipv4 {
export filter { # We use non-trivial export rules
if source = RTS_STATIC then { # Export only static routes
# Assign our community
bgp_community.add((65000,64501));
# Artificially increase path length
# by advertising local AS number twice
if bgp_path ~ [= 65000 =] then
bgp_path.prepend(65000);
accept;
}
reject;
};
import all;
next hop self; # advertise this router as next hop
igp table myigptable4; # IGP table for routes with IPv4 nexthops
};
ipv6 {
export filter mylargefilter; # We use a named filter
import all;
missing lladdr self;
};
ipv4 multicast {
import all;
export filter someotherfilter;
table mymulticasttable4; # Another IPv4 table, dedicated for multicast
igp table myigptable4;
};
}
6.4 Device
The Device protocol is not a real routing protocol. It doesn't generate any routes and it only serves as a
module for getting information about network interfaces from the kernel. This protocol supports no
channel.
Except for very unusual circumstances, you probably should include this protocol in the configuration since
almost all other protocols require network interfaces to be defined for them to work with.
Configuration
scan time number
Time in seconds between two scans of the ne twork interface list. On systems where we are notified
about interface status changes asynchronously (such as newer versions of Linux), we need to scan
the list only in order to avoid confusion by lost notification messages, so the default time is set to a
large value.
interface pattern [, ...]
By default, the Device protocol handles all interfaces without any configuration. Interface definitions
allow to specify optional parameters for specific interfaces. See interface common option for
detailed description. Currently only one interface option is available:
preferred ip
If a network interface has more than one IP address, BIRD chooses one of them as a preferred
one. Preferred IP address is used as source address for packets or announced next hop by routing
protocols. Precisely, BIRD chooses one prefe rred IPv4 address, one preferred IPv6 address and
one preferred link-local IPv6 address. By default, BIRD chooses the first found IP address as the
preferred one.
This option allows to specify which IP address should be preferred. May be used multiple times for
different address classes (IPv4, IPv6, IPv6 lin k-local). In all cases, an address marked by operating
system as secondary cannot be chosen as the primary one.
As the Device protocol doesn't generate any routes, it cannot have any attributes. Example configuration
looks like this:
protocol device {
scan time 10; # Scan the interfaces often
interface "eth0" {
preferred 192.168.1.1;
preferred 2001:db8:1:10::1;
};
}
6.5 Direct
The Direct protocol is a simple generator of device routes for all the directly connected networks according
to the list of interfaces provided by the kernel via the Device protocol. The Direct protocol supports both
IPv4 and IPv6 channels.
The question is whether it is a good idea to have such device routes in BIRD routing table. OS kernel
usually handles device routes for directly connected networks by itself so we don't need (and don't want)
to export these routes to the kernel protocol. OSPF protocol creates device routes for its interfaces itself
and BGP protocol is usually used for exporting aggregate routes. Although there are some use cases that
use the direct protocol (like abusing eBGP as an IGP routing protocol), in most cases it is not needed to
have these device routes in BIRD routing table and to use the direct protocol.
There is one notable case when you definitely want to use the direct protocol -- running BIRD on BSD
systems. Having high priority device routes for directly connected networks from the direct protocol
protects kernel device routes from being overwritten or removed by IGP routes during some transient
network conditions, because a lower priority IGP route for the same network is not exported to the kernel
routing table. This is an issue on BSD systems only , as on Linux systems BIRD cannot change non-BIRD
route in the kernel routing table.
There are just few configuration options for the Direct protocol:
interface pattern [, ...]
By default, the Direct protocol will generate device routes for all the interfaces available. If you want
to restrict it to some subset of interfaces or addresses (e.g. if you're using multiple routing tables for
policy routing and some of the policy domains don't contain all interfaces), just use this clause. See
interface common option for detailed description. The Direct protocol uses extended interface
clauses.
check link switch
If enabled, a hardware link state (reported by OS) is taken into consideration. Routes for directly
connected networks are generated only if link up is reported and they are withdrawn when link
disappears (e.g., an ethernet cable is unplugged). Default value is no.
Direct device routes don't contain any specific attributes.
Example config might look like this:
protocol direct {
ipv4;
ipv6;
interface "-arc*", "*"; # Exclude the ARCnets
}
6.6 Kernel
The Kernel protocol is not a real routing protocol. Instead of communicating with other routers in the
network, it performs synchronization of BIRD's routing tables with the OS kernel. Basically , it sends all
routing table updates to the kernel and from time to time it scans the kernel tables to see whether some
routes have disappeared (for example due to unnoticed up/down transition of an interface) or whether an
`alien' route has been added by someone else (depending on the learn switch, such routes are either
ignored or accepted to our table).
Unfortunately, there is one thing that makes t he routing table synchronization a bit more complicated. In
the kernel routing table there are also device routes for directly connected networks. These routes are
usually managed by OS itself (as a part of IP address configuration) and we don't want to touch that. They
are completely ignored during the scan of the kernel tables and also the export of device routes from BIRD
tables to kernel routing tables is restricted to prevent accidental interference. This restriction can be
disabled using device routes switch.
If your OS supports only a single routing table, you can configure only one instance of the Kernel protocol.
If it supports multiple tables (in order to allow policy routing; such an OS is for example Linux), you can run
as many instances as you want, but each of them must be connected to a dif ferent BIRD routing table and
to a different kernel table.
Because the kernel protocol is partially integrated with the connected routing table, there are two
limitations - it is not possible to connect more kernel protocols to the same routing table and changing
route destination (gateway) in an export filter of a kernel protocol does not work. Both limitations can be
overcome using another routing table and the pipe protocol.
The Kernel protocol supports both IPv4 and IPv6 channels; only one of them can be configured in each
protocol instance.
Configuration
persist switch
Tell BIRD to leave all its routes in the routing tables when it exits (instead of cleaning them up).
scan time number
Time in seconds between two consecutive sc ans of the kernel routing table.
learn switch
Enable learning of routes added to the kernel routing tables by other routing daemons or by the
system administrator. This is possible only on systems which support identification of route
authorship.
kernel table number
Select which kernel table should this particular instance of the Kernel protocol work with. A vailable
only on systems supporting multiple routing tables.
metric number
(Linux) Use specified value as a kernel metric (priority) for all routes sent to the kernel. When
multiple routes for the same network are in the kernel routing table, the Linux kernel chooses one
with lower metric. Also, routes with dif ferent metrics do not clash with each other , therefore using
dedicated metric value is a reliable way to avoid overwriting routes from other sources (e.g. kernel
device routes). Metric 0 has a special meaning of undefined metric, in which either OS default is
used, or per-route metric can be set using krt_metric attribute. Default: 32.
graceful restart switch
Participate in graceful restart recovery . If this option is enabled and a graceful restart recovery is
active, the Kernel protocol will defer synchronization of routing tables until the end of the recovery .
Note that import of kernel routes to BIRD is not af fected.
merge paths switch [limit number]
Usually, only best routes are exported to the kernel protocol. With path merging enabled, both best
routes and equivalent non-best routes are merged during export to generate one ECMP (equal-cost
multipath) route for each network. This is useful e.g. for BGP multipath. Note that best routes are
still pivotal for route export (responsible for most properties of resulting ECMP routes), while
exported non-best routes are responsible just for additional multipath next hops. This option also
allows to specify a limit on maximal number of nexthops in one route. By default, multipath merging
is disabled. If enabled, default value of the limit is 16.
Attributes
The Kernel protocol defines several attributes. These attributes are translated to appropriate system (and
OS-specific) route attributes. W e support these attributes:
int krt_source/
The original source of the imported kernel route. The value is system-dependent. On Linux, it is a
value of the protocol field of the route. See /etc/iproute2/rt_protos for common values. On BSD, it is
based on STATIC and PROTOx flags. The at tribute is read-only.
int krt_metric/
(Linux) The kernel metric of the route. When multiple same routes are in a kernel routing table, the
Linux kernel chooses one with lower metric. Note that preferred way to set kernel metric is to use
protocol option metric, unless per-route metric values are needed.
ip krt_prefsrc/
(Linux) The preferred source address. Used i n source address selection for outgoing packets. Has
to be one of the IP addresses of the router .
int krt_realm/
(Linux) The realm of the route. Can be used f or traffic classification.
int krt_scope/
(Linux IPv4) The scope of the route. V alid values are 0-254, although Linux kernel may re ject some
values depending on route type and nexthop. It is supposed to represent `indirectness' of the route,
where nexthops of routes are resolved through routes with a higher scope, but in current kernels
anything below link (253) is treated as global (0). When not present, global scope is implied for all
routes except device routes, where link scope is used by default.
In Linux, there is also a plenty of obscure route attributes mostly focused on tuning TCP performance of
local connections. BIRD supports most of these attributes, see Linux or iproute2 documentation for their
meaning. Attributes krt_lock_* and krt_feature_* have type bool, others have type int. Supported
attributes are:
krt_mtu, krt_lock_mtu, krt_window, krt_lock_window, krt_rtt, krt_lock_rtt, krt_rttvar, krt_lock_rttvar,

krt_sstresh, krt_lock_sstresh, krt_cwnd, krt_lock_cwnd, krt_advmss, krt_lock_advmss, krt_reordering,
krt_lock_reordering, krt_hoplimit, krt_lock_hoplimit, krt_rto_min, krt_lock_rto_min, krt_initcwnd,
krt_initrwnd, krt_quickack, krt_feature_ecn, krt_feature_allfrag
Example
A simple configuration can look this way:
protocol kernel {
export all;
}
Or for a system with two routing tables:
protocol kernel { # Primary routing table

learn; # Learn alien routes from the kernel
persist; # Don't remove routes on bird shutdown
scan time 10; # Scan kernel routing table every 10 seconds
ipv4 {
import all;
export all;
};
}
protocol kernel { # Secondary routing table

kernel table 100;
kernel table 100;
ipv4 {
table auxtable;
export all;
};
}
6.7 OSPF
Introduction
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a quite complex interior gateway protocol. The current IPv4 version
(OSPFv2) is defined in RFC 2328 and the current IPv6 version (OSPFv3) is defined in RFC 5340 It's a link
state (a.k.a. shortest path first) protocol -- each router maintains a database describing the autonomous
system's topology. Each participating router h as an identical copy of the database and all routers run the
same algorithm calculating a shortest path tree with themselves as a root. OSPF chooses the least cost
path as the best path.
In OSPF, the autonomous system can be spl it to several areas in order to reduce the amount of resources
consumed for exchanging the routing information and to protect the other areas from incorrect routing
data. Topology of the area is hidden to the re st of the autonomous system.
Another very important feature of OSPF is that it can keep routing information from other protocols (like
Static or BGP) in its link state database as external routes. Each external route can be tagged by the
advertising router, making it possible to pass additional information between routers on the boundary of
the autonomous system.
OSPF quickly detects topological changes in the autonomous system (such as router interface failures)
and calculates new loop-free routes after a short period of convergence. Only a minimal amount of routing
traffic is involved.
Each router participating in OSPF routing periodically sends Hello messages to all its interfaces. This
allows neighbors to be discovered dynamically . Then the neighbors exchange theirs parts of the link state
database and keep it identical by flooding updates. The flooding process is reliable and ensures that each
router detects all changes.
Configuration
First, the desired OSPF version can be specified by using ospf v2 or ospf v3 as a protocol type. By default,
OSPFv2 is used. In the main part of configuration, there can be multiple definitions of OSPF areas, each
with a different id. These definitions includes many other switches and multiple definitions of interfaces.
Definition of interface may contain many switches and constant definitions and list of neighbors on
nonbroadcast networks.
OSPFv2 needs one IPv4 channel. OSPFv3 needs either one IPv6 channel, or one IPv4 channel ( RFC
5838). Therefore, it is possible to use OSPFv3 for both IPv4 and Pv6 routing, but it is necessary to have
two protocol instances anyway . If no channel is configured, appropriate channel is defined with default
parameters.
protocol ospf [v2|v3] <name> {

rfc1583compat <switch>;
rfc5838 <switch>;
instance id <num>;
stub router <switch>;
tick <num>;
ecmp <switch> [limit <num>];
merge external <switch>;
area <id> {
stub;
nssa;
summary <switch>;
default nssa <switch>;
default cost <num>;
default cost2 <num>;
translator <switch>;
translator stability <num>;
networks {
<prefix>;
<prefix> hidden;
}
external {
<prefix>;
<prefix> hidden;
<prefix> tag <num>;
}
stubnet <prefix>;
stubnet <prefix> {
hidden <switch>;
summary <switch>;
cost <num>;
}
interface <interface pattern> [instance <num>] {
cost <num>;
stub <switch>;
hello <num>;
poll <num>;
retransmit <num>;
priority <num>;
wait <num>;
dead count <num>;
dead <num>;
secondary <switch>;
rx buffer [normal|large|<num>];
tx length <num>;
type [broadcast|bcast|pointopoint|ptp|
nonbroadcast|nbma|pointomultipoint|ptmp];
nonbroadcast|nbma|pointomultipoint|ptmp];
link lsa suppression <switch>;
strict nonbroadcast <switch>;
real broadcast <switch>;
ptp netmask <switch>;
bfd <switch>;
ecmp weight <num>;
ttl security [<switch>; | tx only]
tx class|dscp <num>;
tx priority <num>;
authentication none|simple|cryptographic;
password "<text>";
password "<text>" {
id <num>;
accept to "<date>";
from "<date>";
to "<date>";
algorithm ( keyed md5 | keyed sha1 | hmac sha1 | hmac sha256 | hmac sha384 | hmac sha512 );
};
neighbors {
<ip>;
<ip> eligible;
};
};
virtual link <id> [instance <num>] {
hello <num>;
retransmit <num>;
wait <num>;
dead count <num>;
dead <num>;
authentication none|simple|cryptographic;
password "<text>";
password "<text>" {
id <num>;
accept to "<date>";
from "<date>";
to "<date>";
};
};
};
}
rfc1583compat switch
This option controls compatibility of routing table calculation with RFC 1583. Default value is no.
rfc5838 switch
Basic OSPFv3 is limited to IPv6 unicast routing. The RFC 5838 extension defines support for more
address families (IPv4, IPv6, both unicast and multicast). The extension is enabled by default, but
can be disabled if necessary , as it restricts th e range of available instance IDs. Default value is yes.
instance id num
When multiple OSPF protocol instances are active on the same links, they should use dif ferent
instance IDs to distinguish their packets. Although it could be done on per-interface basis, it is often
preferred to set one instance ID to whole OSPF domain/topology (e.g., when multiple instances are
used to represent separate logical topologies on the same physical network). This option specifies
the instance ID for all interfaces of the OSPF instance, but can be overridden by interface option.
Default value is 0 unless OSPFv3-AF extended address families are used, see RFC 5838 for that
case.
stub router switch
This option configures the router to be a stub router , i.e., a router that participates in the OSPF
topology but does not allow transit traf fic. In OSPFv2, this is implemented by advertising maximum
metric for outgoing links. In OSPFv3, the stub router behavior is announced by clearing the R-bit in
the router LSA. See RFC 6987 for details. Default value is no.
tick num
The routing table calculation and clean-up of areas' databases is not performed when a single link
state change arrives. To lower the CPU utiliza tion, it's processed later at periodical intervals of num
seconds. The default value is 1.
ecmp switch [limit number]
This option specifies whether OSPF is allowed to generate ECMP (equal-cost multipath) routes.
Such routes are used when there are several directions to the destination, each with the same
(computed) cost. This option also allows to specify a limit on maximum number of nexthops in one
route. By default, ECMP is enabled if supported by Kernel. Default value of the limit is 16.
merge external switch
This option specifies whether OSPF should merge external routes from dif ferent routers/LSAs for
the same destination. When enabled together with ecmp, equal-cost external routes will be
combined to multipath routes in the same way as regular routes. When disabled, external routes
from different LSAs are treated as separate e ven if they represents the same destination. Default
value is no.
area id
This defines an OSPF area with given area ID (an integer or an IPv4 address, similarly to a router
ID). The most important area is the backbone (ID 0) to which every other area must be connected.
stub
This option configures the area to be a stub area. External routes are not flooded into stub areas.
Also summary LSAs can be limited in stub areas (see option summary). By default, the area is not a
stub area.
nssa
This option configures the area to be a NSSA (Not-So-Stubby Area). NSSA is a variant of a stub
area which allows a limited way of external route propagation. Global external routes are not
propagated into a NSSA, but an external route can be imported into NSSA as a (area-wide) NSSA-
LSA (and possibly translated and/or aggregated on area boundary). By default, the area is not
NSSA.
summary switch
This option controls propagation of summary LSAs into stub or NSSA areas. If enabled, summary
LSAs are propagated as usual, otherwise just the default summary route (0.0.0.0/0) is propagated
(this is sometimes called totally stubby area). If a stub area has more area boundary routers,
propagating summary LSAs could lead to more ef ficient routing at the cost of larger link state
database. Default value is no.
default nssa switch
When summary option is enabled, default summary route is no longer propagated to the NSSA. In
that case, this option allows to originate default route as NSSA-LSA to the NSSA. Default value is
no.
default cost num
This option controls the cost of a default route propagated to stub and NSSA areas. Default value is
1000.
default cost2 num
When a default route is originated as NSSA-LSA, its cost can use either type 1 or type 2 metric.
This option allows to specify the cost of a default route in type 2 metric. By default, type 1 metric
(option default cost) is used.
translator switch
This option controls translation of NSSA-LSAs into external LSAs. By default, one translator per
NSSA is automatically elected from area boundary routers. If enabled, this area boundary router
would unconditionally translate all NSSA-LSAs regardless of translator election. Default value is no.
translator stability num
This option controls the translator stability interval (in seconds). When the new translator is elected,
the old one keeps translating until the interval is over . Default value is 40.
networks { set }
Definition of area IP ranges. This is used in summary LSA origination. Hidden networks are not
propagated into other areas.
external { set }
Definition of external area IP ranges for NSSAs. This is used for NSSA-LSA translation. Hidden
networks are not translated into external LSAs. Networks can have configured route tag.
stubnet prefix { options }
Stub networks are networks that are not transit networks between OSPF routers. They are also
propagated through an OSPF area as a part of a link state database. By default, BIRD generates a
stub network record for each primary network address on each OSPF interface that does not have
any OSPF neighbors, and also for each non-primary network address on each OSPF interface.
This option allows to alter a set of stub networks propagated by this router .
Each instance of this option adds a stub network with given network prefix to the set of propagated
stub network, unless option hidden is used. It also suppresses default stub networks for given
network prefix. When option summary is used, also default stub networks that are subnetworks of
given stub network are suppressed. This might be used, for example, to aggregate generated stub
networks.
interface pattern [instance num]
Defines that the specified interfaces belong to the area being defined. See interface common option
for detailed description. In OSPFv2, extended interface clauses are used, because each network
prefix is handled as a separate virtual interface.
You can specify alternative instance ID for the interface definition, therefore it is possible to have
several instances of that interface with dif ferent options or even in dif ferent areas. For OSPFv2,
instance ID support is an extension ( RFC 6549) and is supposed to be set per-protocol. For
OSPFv3, it is an integral feature.
virtual link id [instance num]
Virtual link to router with the router id. V irtual link acts as a point-to-point interface belongi ng to
backbone. The actual area is used as a transport area. This item cannot be in the backbone. Like
with interface option, you could also use several virtual links to one destination with dif ferent
instance IDs.
cost num
Specifies output cost (metric) of an interface. Default value is 10.
stub switch
If set to interface it does not listen to any packet and does not send any hello. Default value is no.
hello num
Specifies interval in seconds between sending of Hello messages. Beware, all routers on the same
network need to have the same hello interval. Default value is 10.
poll num
Specifies interval in seconds between sending of Hello messages for some neighbors on NBMA
network. Default value is 20.
retransmit num
Specifies interval in seconds between retransmissions of unacknowledged updates. Default value

is 5.
priority num
On every multiple access network (e.g., the Ethernet) Designated Router and Backup Designated
router are elected. These routers have some special functions in the flooding process. Higher
priority increases preferences in this election. Routers with priority 0 are not eligible. Default value
is 1.
wait num
After start, router waits for the specified number of seconds between starting election and building
adjacency. Default value is 4* hello.
dead count num
When the router does not receive any messages from a neighbor in dead count*hello seconds, it
will consider the neighbor down.
dead num
When the router does not receive any messages from a neighbor in dead seconds, it will consider
the neighbor down. If both directives dead count and dead are used, dead has precedence.
secondary switch
On BSD systems, older versions of BIRD supported OSPFv2 only for the primary IP address of an
interface, other IP ranges on the interface were handled as stub networks. Since v1.4.1, regular
operation on secondary IP addresses is supported, but disabled by default for compatibility . This
option allows to enable it. The option is a transitional measure, will be removed in the next major
release as the behavior will be changed. On Linux systems, the option is irrelevant, as operation on
non-primary addresses is already the regular behavior .
rx buffer num
This option allows to specify the size of buf fers used for packet processing. The buf fer size should
be bigger than maximal size of any packets. By default, buf fers are dynamically resized as needed,
but a fixed value could be specified. V alue large means maximal allowed packet size - 65535.
tx length num
Transmitted OSPF messages that contain lar ge amount of information are segmented to separate
OSPF packets to avoid IP fragmentation. This option specifies the soft ceiling for the length of
generated OSPF packets. Default value is the MTU of the network interface. Note that larger OSPF
packets may still be generated if underlying OSPF messages cannot be splitted (e.g. when one
large LSA is propagated).
type broadcast|bcast
BIRD detects a type of a connected network automatically , but sometimes it's convenient to force
use of a different type manually. On broadcast networks (like ethernet), flooding and Hello
messages are sent using multicasts (a single packet for all the neighbors). A designated router is
elected and it is responsible for synchronizing the link-state databases and originating network
LSAs. This network type cannot be used on physically NBMA networks and on unnumbered
networks (networks without proper IP prefix).
type pointopoint|ptp
Point-to-point networks connect just 2 routers together . No election is performed and no network
LSA is originated, which makes it simpler and faster to establish. This network type is useful not
only for physically PtP ifaces (like PPP or tunnels), but also for broadcast networks used as PtP
links. This network type cannot be used on physically NBMA networks.
type nonbroadcast|nbma
On NBMA networks, the packets are sent to each neighbor separately because of lack of multicast
capabilities. Like on broadcast networks, a designated router is elected, which plays a central role
in propagation of LSAs. This network type cannot be used on unnumbered networks.
type pointomultipoint|ptmp
This is another network type designed to handle NBMA networks. In this case the NBMA network is
treated as a collection of PtP links. This is useful if not every pair of routers on the NBMA network
has direct communication, or if the NBMA network is used as an (possibly unnumbered) PtP link.
link lsa suppression switch
In OSPFv3, link LSAs are generated for each link, announcing link-local IPv6 address of the router
to its local neighbors. These are useless on PtP or PtMP networks and this option allows to
suppress the link LSA origination for such interfaces. The option is ignored on other than PtP or
PtMP interfaces. Default value is no.
strict nonbroadcast switch

If set, don't send hello to any undefined neighbor . This switch is ignored on other than NBMA or
PtMP interfaces. Default value is no.
real broadcast switch
In type broadcastor type ptp network configuration, OSPF packets are sent as IP multicast
packets. This option changes the behavior to using old-fashioned IP broadcast packets. This may
be useful as a workaround if IP multicast for some reason does not work or does not work reliably .
This is a non-standard option and probably is not interoperable with other OSPF implementations.
Default value is no.
ptp netmask switch
In type ptp network configurations, OSPFv2 implementations should ignore received netmask field
in hello packets and should send hello packets with zero netmask field on unnumbered PtP links.
But some OSPFv2 implementations perform netmask checking even for PtP links. This option
specifies whether real netmask will be used in hello packets on type ptp interfaces. You should
ignore this option unless you meet some compatibility problems related to this issue. Default value
is no for unnumbered PtP links, yes otherwise.
check link switch
If set, a hardware link state (reported by OS) is taken into consideration. When a link disappears
(e.g. an ethernet cable is unplugged), neighbors are immediately considered unreachable and only
the address of the iface (instead of whole network prefix) is propagated. It is possible that some
hardware drivers or platforms do not implement this feature. Default value is yes.
bfd switch
OSPF could use BFD protocol as an advisory mechanism for neighbor liveness and failure
detection. If enabled, BIRD setups a BFD session for each OSPF neighbor and tracks its liveness
by it. This has an advantage of an order of magnitude lower detection times in case of failure. Note
that BFD protocol also has to be configured, see BFD section for details. Default value is no.
ttl security [switch | tx only]
TTL security is a feature that protects routing protocols from remote spoofed packets by using TTL
255 instead of TTL 1 for protocol packets destined to neighbors. Because TTL is decremented
when packets are forwarded, it is non-trivial to spoof packets with TTL 255 from remote locations.
Note that this option would interfere with OSPF virtual links.
If this option is enabled, the router will send OSPF packets with TTL 255 and drop received packets
with TTL less than 255. If this option si set to tx only, TTL 255 is used for sent packets, but is not
checked for received packets. Default value is no.
tx class|dscp|priority num
These options specify the ToS/DiffServ/Traffic class/Priority of the outgoing OSPF packets . See tx
ecmp weight num
When ECMP (multipath) routes are allowed, this value specifies a relative weight used for nexthops
going through the iface. Allowed values are 1-256. Default value is 1.
authentication none
No passwords are sent in OSPF packets. This is the default value.

authentication simple
Every packet carries 8 bytes of password. Received packets lacking this password are ignored.
This authentication mechanism is very weak. This option is not available in OSPFv3.
authentication cryptographic
An authentication code is appended to every packet. The specific cryptographic algorithm is

selected by option algorithm for each key. The default cryptographic algor ithm for OSPFv2 keys is
Keyed-MD5 and for OSPFv3 keys is HMAC-SHA-256. Passwords are not sent open via network,
so this mechanism is quite secure. Packets can still be read by an attacker .
password "text"
description.
neighbors { set }
A set of neighbors to which Hello messages on NBMA or PtMP networks are to be sent. For NBMA
networks, some of them could be marked as eligible. In OSPFv3, link-local addresses should be
used, using global ones is possible, but it is nonstandard and might be problematic. And definitely ,
link-local and global addresses should not be mixed.
Attributes
OSPF defines four route attributes. Each internal route has a metric.
Metric is ranging from 1 to infinity (65535). External routes use metric type 1 or metric type 2. A metric of
type 1 is comparable with internal metric, a metric of type 2is always longer than any metric of type 1or
any internal metric. Internal metricor metric of type 1is stored in attribute ospf_metric1, metric type 2
is stored in attribute ospf_metric2. If you specify both metrics only metric1 is used.
Each external route can also carry attribute ospf_tag which is a 32-bit integer which is used when
exporting routes to other protocols; otherwise, it doesn't af fect routing inside the OSPF domain at all. The
fourth attribute ospf_router_idis a router ID of the router advertising that route / network. This attribute is
read-only. Default is ospf_metric2 = 10000and ospf_tag = 0.
Example
protocol ospf MyOSPF {
ipv4 {
export filter {
if source = RTS_BGP then {
ospf_metric1 = 100;
accept;
}
reject;
};
};
area 0.0.0.0 {
interface "eth*" {
cost 11;
hello 15;
priority 100;
retransmit 7;
authentication simple;
password "aaa";
};
interface "ppp*" {
cost 100;
authentication cryptographic;
password "abc" {
id 1;
generate to "22-04-2003 11:00:06";
accept from "17-01-2001 12:01:05";
algorithm hmac sha384;
};
password "def" {
id 2;
generate to "22-07-2005 17:03:21";
accept from "22-02-2001 11:34:06";
algorithm hmac sha512;
};
};
interface "arc0" {
cost 10;
stub yes;
};
interface "arc1";
};
area 120 {
stub yes;
networks {
172.16.1.0/24;
172.16.2.0/24 hidden;
}
interface "-arc0" , "arc*" {
type nonbroadcast;
authentication none;
strict nonbroadcast yes;
wait 120;
poll 40;
dead count 8;
neighbors {
192.168.120.1 eligible;
192.168.120.2;
192.168.120.10;
};
};
};
}
6.8 Pipe
Introduction
The Pipe protocol serves as a link between two routing tables, allowing routes to be passed from a table
declared as primary (i.e., the one the pipe is connected to using the table configuration keyword) to the
secondary one (declared using peer table) and vice versa, depending on what's allowed by the filters.
Export filters control export of routes from the primary table to the secondary one, import filters control the
opposite direction. Both tables must be of the same nettype.
The Pipe protocol may work in the transparent mode mode or in the opaque mode. In the transparent
mode, the Pipe protocol retransmits all routes from one table to the other table, retaining their original
source and attributes. If import and export filters are set to accept, then both tables would have the same
content. The transparent mode is the default mode.
In the opaque mode, the Pipe protocol retransmits optimal route from one table to the other table in a
similar way like other protocols send and receive routes. Retransmitted route will have the source set to
the Pipe protocol, which may limit access to protocol specific route attributes. This mode is mainly for
compatibility, it is not suggested for new conf igs. The mode can be changed by mode option.
The primary use of multiple routing tables and the Pipe protocol is for policy routing, where handling of a
single packet doesn't depend only on its destination address, but also on its source address, source
interface, protocol type and other similar parameters. In many systems (Linux being a good example), the
kernel allows to enforce routing policies by defining routing rules which choose one of several routing
tables to be used for a packet according to its parameters. Setting of these rules is outside the scope of
BIRD's work (on Linux, you can use the ip command), but you can create several routing tables in BIRD,
connect them to the kernel ones, use filters to control which routes appear in which tables and also you
can employ the Pipe protocol for exporting a selected subset of one table to another one.
Configuration
Essentially, the Pipe protocol is just a channe l connected to a table on both sides. Therefore, the
configuration block for protocol pipe shall directly include standard channel config options; see the
example below.
peer table table
Defines secondary routing table to connect to. The primary one is selected by the table keyword.
Attributes
The Pipe protocol doesn't define any route attributes.
Example
Let's consider a router which serves as a boundary router of two dif ferent autonomous systems, each of
them connected to a subset of interfaces of the router , having its own exterior connectivity and wishing to
use the other AS as a backup connectivity in case of outage of its own exterior line.
Probably the simplest solution to this situation is to use two routing tables (we'll call them as1 and as2) and
set up kernel routing rules, so that packets having arrived from interfaces belonging to the first AS will be
routed according to as1 and similarly for the second AS. Thus we have split our router to two logical
routers, each one acting on its own routing table, having its own routing protocols on its own interfaces. In
order to use the other AS's routes for backup purposes, we can pass the routes between the tables
through a Pipe protocol while decreasing their preferences and correcting their BGP paths to reflect the
AS boundary crossing.
ipv4 table as1; # Define the tables

ipv4 table as2;
protocol kernel kern1 { # Synchronize them with the kernel

ipv4 { table as1; export all; };
kernel table 1;
}
protocol kernel kern2 {

kernel table 2;
}
protocol bgp bgp1 { # The outside connections

local as 1;
neighbor 192.168.0.1 as 1001;
}
protocol bgp bgp2 {

local as 2;
neighbor 10.0.0.1 as 1002;
}
protocol pipe { # The Pipe

table as1;
peer table as2;
export filter {
if net ~ [ 1.0.0.0/8+] then { # Only AS1 networks
if preference>10 then preference = preference-10;
if source=RTS_BGP then bgp_path.prepend(1);
accept;
}
reject;
};
import filter {
if net ~ [ 2.0.0.0/8+] then { # Only AS2 networks
if preference>10 then preference = preference-10;
if source=RTS_BGP then bgp_path.prepend(2);
accept;
}
reject;
};
}
6.9 RAdv
Introduction
The RAdv protocol is an implementation of Router Advertisements, which are used in the IPv6 stateless
autoconfiguration. IPv6 routers send (in irregular time intervals or as an answer to a request)
advertisement packets to connected networks. These packets contain basic information about a local
network (e.g. a list of network prefixes), which allows network hosts to autoconfigure network addresses
and choose a default route. BIRD implements router behavior as defined in RFC 4861, router preferences
and specific routes ( RFC 4191), and DNS extensions ( RFC 6106).
The RAdv protocols supports just IPv6 channel.
Configuration
There are several classes of definitions in RAdv configuration -- interface definitions, prefix definitions and
DNS definitions:
Interface definitions specify a set of interfaces on which the protocol is activated and contain
interface specific options. See interface common options for detailed description.
prefix prefix { options }
Prefix definitions allow to modify a list of advertised prefixes. By default, the advertised prefixes are
the same as the network prefixes assigned to the interface. For each network prefix, the matching
prefix definition is found and its options are used. If no matching prefix definition is found, the prefix
is used with default options.
Prefix definitions can be either global or interface-specific. The second ones are part of interface
options. The prefix definition matching is done in the first-match style, when interface-specific
definitions are processed before global definitions. As expected, the prefix definition is matching if
the network prefix is a subnet of the prefix in prefix definition.
rdnss { options }
RDNSS definitions allow to specify a list of advertised recursive DNS servers together with their
options. As options are seldom necessary , there is also a short variant rdnss address that just
specifies one DNS server . Multiple definitions are cumulative. RDNSS definitions may also be
interface-specific when used inside interface options. By default, interface uses both global and
interface-specific options, but that can be changed by rdnss local option.
dnssl { options }
DNSSL definitions allow to specify a list of advertised DNS search domains together with their
options. Like rdnss above, multiple definitions are cumulative, they can be used also as interface-
specific options and there is a short variant dnssl domain that just specifies one DNS search
domain.
trigger prefix
RAdv protocol could be configured to change its behavior based on availability of routes. When this
option is used, the protocol waits in suppressed state until a trigger route (for the specified network)
is exported to the protocol, the protocol also returnsd to suppressed state if the trigger route
disappears. Note that route export depends on specified export filter , as usual. This option could be
used, e.g., for handling failover in multihoming scenarios.
During suppressed state, router advertisements are generated, but with some fields zeroed. Exact
behavior depends on which fields are zeroed, this can be configured by sensitive option for
appropriate fields. By default, just default lifetime(also called router lifetime) is zeroed, which
means hosts cannot use the router as a default router . preferred lifetimeand valid lifetimecould
also be configured as sensitive for a prefix, which would cause autoconfigured IPs to be
deprecated or even removed.
propagate routes switch
This option controls propagation of more specific routes, as defined in RFC 4191. If enabled, all
routes exported to the RAdv protocol, with the exception of the trigger prefix, are added to
advertisments as additional options. The lifetime and preference of advertised routes can be set
individually by ra_lifetime and ra_preference route attributes, or per interface by route lifetime
and route preferenceoptions. Default: disabled.
Note that the RFC discourages from sending more than 17 routes and recommends the routes to
be configured manually.
Interface specific options:

max ra interval expr
Unsolicited router advertisements are sent in irregular time intervals. This option specifies the
maximum length of these intervals, in seconds. V alid values are 4-1800. Default: 600
min ra interval expr
This option specifies the minimum length of that intervals, in seconds. Must be at least 3 and at
most 3/4 * max ra interval. Default: about 1/3 * max ra interval.
min delay expr
The minimum delay between two consecutive router advertisements, in seconds. Default: 3
managed switch
This option specifies whether hosts should use DHCPv6 for IP address configuration. Default: no
other config switch
This option specifies whether hosts should use DHCPv6 to receive other configuration information.
Default: no
link mtu expr
This option specifies which value of MTU should be used by hosts. 0 means unspecified. Default: 0
reachable time expr
This option specifies the time (in milliseconds) how long hosts should assume a neighbor is
reachable (from the last confirmation). Maximum is 3600000, 0 means unspecified. Default 0.
retrans timer expr
This option specifies the time (in milliseconds) how long hosts should wait before retransmitting
Neighbor Solicitation messages. 0 means unspecified. Default 0.
current hop limit expr
This option specifies which value of Hop Limit should be used by hosts. V alid values are 0-255, 0
means unspecified. Default: 64
default lifetime expr [sensitive switch]
This option specifies the time (in seconds) how long (since the receipt of RA) hosts may use the
router as a default router . 0 means do not use as a default router . For sensitive option, see trigger.
Default: 3 * max ra interval, sensitive yes.
default preference low|medium|high
This option specifies the Default Router Preference value to advertise to hosts. Default: medium.
route lifetime expr [sensitive switch]
This option specifies the default value of advertised lifetime for specific routes; i.e., the time (in
seconds) for how long (since the receipt of RA) hosts should consider these routes valid. A special
value 0xffffffff represents infinity. The lifetime can be overriden on a per route basis by the
ra_lifetime route attribute. Default: 3 * max ra interval, sensitive no.
For the sensitive option, see trigger. If sensitive is enabled, even the routes with the ra_lifetime
attribute become sensitive to the trigger .
route preference low|medium|high
This option specifies the default value of advertised route preference for specific routes. The value
can be overriden on a per route basis by the ra_preference route attribute. Default: medium.
prefix linger time expr
When a prefix or a route disappears, it is advertised for some time with zero lifetime, to inform
clients it is no longer valid. This option specifies the time (in seconds) for how long prefixes are
advertised that way. Default: 3 * max ra interval.
route linger time expr
When a prefix or a route disappears, it is advertised for some time with zero lifetime, to inform
clients it is no longer valid. This option specifies the time (in seconds) for how long routes are
advertised that way. Default: 3 * max ra interval.
rdnss local switch
Use only local (interface-specific) RDNSS definitions for this interface. Otherwise, both global and
local definitions are used. Could also be used to disable RDNSS for given interface if no local
definitons are specified. Default: no.
dnssl local switch
Use only local DNSSL definitions for this interface. See rdnss local option above. Default: no.
Prefix specific options
skip switch
This option allows to specify that given prefix should not be advertised. This is useful for making
exceptions from a default policy of advertising all prefixes. Note that for withdrawing an already
advertised prefix it is more useful to advertise it with zero valid lifetime. Default: no
onlink switch
This option specifies whether hosts may use the advertised prefix for onlink determination. Default:
yes
autonomous switch
This option specifies whether hosts may use the advertised prefix for stateless autoconfiguration.
Default: yes
valid lifetime expr [sensitive switch]
This option specifies the time (in seconds) how long (after the receipt of RA) the prefix information
is valid, i.e., autoconfigured IP addresses can be assigned and hosts with that IP addresses are
considered directly reachable. 0 means the prefix is no longer valid. For sensitive option, see
trigger. Default: 86400 (1 day), sensitive no.
preferred lifetime expr [sensitive switch]
This option specifies the time (in seconds) how long (after the receipt of RA) IP addresses
generated from the prefix using stateless autoconfiguration remain preferred. For sensitive option,
see trigger. Default: 14400 (4 hours), sensitive no.
RDNSS specific options:
ns address
This option specifies one recursive DNS server . Can be used multiple times for multiple servers. It
is mandatory to have at least one ns option in rdnss definition.
lifetime [mult] expr
This option specifies the time how long the RDNSS information may be used by clients after the
receipt of RA. It is expressed either in seconds or (when mult is used) in multiples of max ra
interval. Note that RDNSS information is also invalidated when default lifetimeexpires. 0 means
these addresses are no longer valid DNS servers. Default: 3 * max ra interval.
DNSSL specific options:
domain address
This option specifies one DNS search domain. Can be used multiple times for multiple domains. It
is mandatory to have at least one domain option in dnssl definition.
lifetime [mult] expr
This option specifies the time how long the DNSSL information may be used by clients after the
receipt of RA. Details are the same as for RDNSS lifetime option above. Default: 3 * max ra
interval.
Attributes
RAdv defines two route attributes:

enum ra_preference/
The preference of the route. The value can be RA_PREF_LOW , RA_PREF_MEDIUM or

RA_PREF_HIGH . If the attribute is not set, the route preference option is used.
int ra_lifetime/
The advertised lifetime of the route, in seconds. The special value of 0xf fffffff represents infinity. If
the attribute is not set, the route lifetime option is used.
Example
ipv6 table radv_routes; # Manually configured routes go here
protocol static {
ipv6 { table radv_routes; };
route 2001:0DB8:4000::/48 unreachable;

route 2001:0DB8:4010::/48 unreachable;
route 2001:0DB8:4020::/48 unreachable {

ra_preference = RA_PREF_HIGH;
ra_lifetime = 3600;
};
}
protocol radv {
propagate routes yes; # Propagate the routes from the radv_routes table
ipv6 { table radv_routes; export all; };
interface "eth2" {
max ra interval 5; # Fast failover with more routers
managed yes; # Using DHCPv6 on eth2
prefix ::/0 {
autonomous off; # So do not autoconfigure any IP
};
};
interface "eth*"; # No need for any other options
prefix 2001:0DB8:1234::/48 {
preferred lifetime 0; # Deprecated address range
};
prefix 2001:0DB8:2000::/48 {
autonomous off; # Do not autoconfigure
};
rdnss 2001:0DB8:1234::10; # Short form of RDNSS
rdnss {
lifetime mult 10;
ns 2001:0DB8:1234::11;
ns 2001:0DB8:1234::12;
};
dnssl {
lifetime 3600;
domain "abc.com";
domain "xyz.com";
};
}
6.10 RIP
Introduction
The RIP protocol (also sometimes called Rest In Pieces) is a simple protocol, where each router
broadcasts (to all its neighbors) distances to all networks it can reach. When a router hears distance to
another network, it increments it and broadcasts it back. Broadcasts are done in regular intervals.
Therefore, if some network goes unreachable, routers keep telling each other that its distance is the
original distance plus 1 (actually , plus interface metric, which is usually one). After some time, the distance
reaches infinity (that's 15 in RIP) and all routers know that network is unreachable. RIP tries to minimize
situations where counting to infinity is necessary , because it is slow. Due to infinity being 16, you can't use
RIP on networks where maximal distance is higher than 15 hosts.
BIRD supports RIPv1 ( RFC 1058), RIPv2 (RFC 2453), RIPng (RFC 2080), and RIP cryptographic
authentication ( RFC 4822).
RIP is a very simple protocol, and it has a lot of shortcomings. Slow convergence, big network load and
inability to handle larger networks makes it pretty much obsolete. It is still usable on very small networks.
Configuration
RIP configuration consists mainly of common protocol options and interface definitions, most RIP options
are interface specific. RIPng (RIP for IPv6) protocol instance can be configured by using rip ng instead of
just rip as a protocol type.
RIP needs one IPv4 channel. RIPng needs one IPv6 channel. If no channel is configured, appropriate
channel is defined with default parameters.
protocol rip [ng] [<name>] {

infinity <number>;
ecmp <switch> [limit <number>];
metric <number>;
mode multicast|broadcast;
passive <switch>;
address <ip>;
port <number>;
version 1|2;
split horizon <switch>;
poison reverse <switch>;
check zero <switch>;
update time <number>;
timeout time <number>;
garbage time <number>;
ecmp weight <number>;
ttl security <switch>; | tx only;
tx class|dscp <number>;
tx priority <number>;
rx buffer <number>;
tx length <number>;
authentication none|plaintext|cryptographic;
password "<text>";
password "<text>" {
id <num>;
accept to "<date>";
from "<date>";
to "<date>";
};
};
}
infinity number
Selects the distance of infinity . Bigger values will make protocol convergence even slower . The
default value is 16.
ecmp switch [limit number]
This option specifies whether RIP is allowed to generate ECMP (equal-cost multipath) routes. Such
routes are used when there are several directions to the destination, each with the same
(computed) cost. This option also allows to specify a limit on maximum number of nexthops in one
route. By default, ECMP is enabled if supported by Kernel. Default value of the limit is 16.
Interface definitions specify a set of interfaces on which the protocol is activated and contain
interface specific options. See interface common options for detailed description.
Interface specific options:

metric num
This option specifies the metric of the interface. When a route is received from the interface, its
metric is increased by this value before further processing. V alid values are 1-255, but values
higher than infinity has no further meaning. Default: 1.
mode multicast|broadcast
This option selects the mode for RIP to use on the interface. The default is multicast mode for
RIPv2 and broadcast mode for RIPv1. RIPng always uses the multicast mode.
passive switch
Passive interfaces receive routing updates but do not transmit any messages. Default: no.
address ip
This option specifies a destination address used for multicast or broadcast messages, the default is
the official RIP (224.0.0.9) or RIPng (f f02::9) multicast address, or an appropriate broadca st
address in the broadcast mode.
port number
This option selects an UDP port to operate on, the default is the of ficial RIP (520) or RIPng (521)
port.
version 1|2
This option selects the version of RIP used on the interface. For RIPv1, automatic subnet
aggregation is not implemented, only classful network routes and host routes are propagated. Note
that BIRD allows RIPv1 to be configured with features that are defined for RIPv2 only , like
authentication or using multicast sockets. The default is RIPv2 for IPv4 RIP , the option is not
supported for RIPng, as no further versions are defined.
version only switch
Regardless of RIP version configured for the interface, BIRD accepts incoming packets of any RIP
version. This option restrict accepted packets to the configured version. Default: no.
split horizon switch
Split horizon is a scheme for preventing routing loops. When split horizon is active, routes are not
regularly propagated back to the interface from which they were received. They are either not
propagated back at all (plain split horizon) or propagated back with an infinity metric (split horizon
with poisoned reverse). Therefore, other routers on the interface will not consider the router as a
part of an independent path to the destination of the route. Default: yes.
poison reverse switch
When split horizon is active, this option specifies whether the poisoned reverse variant (propagating
routes back with an infinity metric) is used. The poisoned reverse has some advantages in faster
convergence, but uses more network traf fic. Default: yes.
check zero switch
Received RIPv1 packets with non-zero values in reserved fields should be discarded. This option
specifies whether the check is performed or such packets are just processed as usual. Default: yes.
update time number
Specifies the number of seconds between periodic updates. A lower number will mean faster
convergence but bigger network load. Default: 30.
timeout time number
Specifies the time interval (in seconds) between the last received route announcement and the
route expiration. After that, the network is considered unreachable, but still is propagated with
infinity distance. Default: 180.
garbage time number
Specifies the time interval (in seconds) between the route expiration and the removal of the
unreachable network entry . The garbage inte rval, when a route with infinity metric is propagated, is
used for both internal (after expiration) and external (after withdrawal) routes. Default: 120.
ecmp weight number
When ECMP (multipath) routes are allowed, this value specifies a relative weight used for nexthops
going through the iface. V alid values are 1-25 6. Default value is 1.
authentication none|plaintext|cryptographic
Selects authentication method to be used. none means that packets are not authenticated at all,
plaintext means that a plaintext password is embedded into each packet, and cryptographic
means that packets are authenticated using some cryptographic hash function selected by option
algorithm for each key. The default cryptographic algor ithm for RIP keys is Keyed-MD5. If you set
authentication to not-none, it is a good idea to add password section. Default: none.
password "text"
description.
ttl security [switch | tx only]
TTL security is a feature that protects routing protocols from remote spoofed packets by using TTL
255 instead of TTL 1 for protocol packets destined to neighbors. Because TTL is decremented
when packets are forwarded, it is non-trivial to spoof packets with TTL 255 from remote locations.
If this option is enabled, the router will send RIP packets with TTL 255 and drop received packets
with TTL less than 255. If this option si set to tx only, TTL 255 is used for sent packets, but is not
checked for received packets. Such setting does not of fer protection, but of fers compatibility with
neighbors regardless of whether they use ttl security .
For RIPng, TTL security is a standard behavior (required by RFC 2080) and therefore default value
is yes. For IPv4 RIP, default value is no.
tx class|dscp|priority number
These options specify the ToS/DiffServ/Traffic class/Priority of the outgoing RIP packets. S ee tx
rx buffer number
This option specifies the size of buf fers used for packet processing. The buffer size should be
bigger than maximal size of received packets. The default value is 532 for IPv4 RIP and interface
MTU value for RIPng.
tx length number
This option specifies the maximum length of generated RIP packets. T o avoid IP fragmentation, it
should not exceed the interface MTU value. The default value is 532 for IPv4 RIP and interface
MTU value for RIPng.
check link switch
If set, the hardware link state (as reported by OS) is taken into consideration. When the link
disappears (e.g. an ethernet cable is unplugged), neighbors are immediately considered
unreachable and all routes received from them are withdrawn. It is possible that some hardware
drivers or platforms do not implement this feature. Default: yes.
Attributes
RIP defines two route attributes:

int rip_metric
RIP metric of the route (ranging from 0 to infinity). When routes from dif ferent RIP instances a re
available and all of them have the same preference, BIRD prefers the route with lowest rip_metric.
When a non-RIP route is exported to RIP , the default metric is 1.
int rip_tag/
RIP route tag: a 16-bit number which can be used to carry additional information with the route (for
example, an originating AS number in case of external routes). When a non-RIP route is exported
to RIP, the default tag is 0.
Example
protocol rip {
ipv4 {
import all;
export all;
};
interface "eth*" {
metric 2;
port 1520;
mode multicast;
update time 12;
timeout time 60;
authentication cryptographic;
password "secret" { algorithm hmac sha256; };
};
}
6.11 RPKI
Introduction
The Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) is mechanism for origin validation of BGP routes (RFC
6480). BIRD supports only so-called RPKI-based origin validation. There is implemented RPKI to Router
(RPKI-RTR) protocol (RFC 6810). It uses som e of the RPKI data to allow a router to verify that the
autonomous system announcing an IP address prefix is in fact authorized to do so. This is not crypto
checked so can be violated. But it should prevent the vast majority of accidental hijackings on the Internet
today, e.g. the famous Pakastani accidental a nnouncement of YouTube's address space.
The RPKI-RTR protocol receives and mainta ins a set of ROAs from a cache server (also called validator).
You can validate routes (RFC 6483) using function roa_check() in filter and set it as import filter at the BGP
protocol. BIRD should re-validate all of af fected routes after RPKI update by RFC 681 1, but we don't
support it yet! You can use a BIRD's client command reload in bgp_protocol_namefor manual call of
revalidation of all routes.
Supported transports
Unprotected transport over TCP uses a port 323. The cache server and BIRD router should be on
the same trusted and controlled network for security reasons.
SSHv2 encrypted transport connection uses the normal SSH port 22.
Configuration
We currently support just one cache server p er protocol. However you can define more RPKI protocols
generally.
protocol rpki [<name>] {

roa4 { table <tab>; };
roa6 { table <tab>; };
remote <ip> | "<domain>" [port <num>];
port <num>;
refresh [keep] <num>;
retry [keep] <num>;
expire [keep] <num>;
transport tcp;
transport ssh {
bird private key "</path/to/id_rsa>";
remote public key "</path/to/known_host>";
user "<name>";
};
}
Alse note that you have to specify the ROA channel. If you want to import only IPv4 prefixes you have to
specify only roa4 channel. Similarly with IPv6 prefixes only . If you want to fetch both IPv4 and even IPv6
ROAs you have to specify both channels.
RPKI protocol options

remote ip | "hostname" [port num]
Specifies a destination address of the cache server . Can be specified by an IP address or by full
domain name string. Only one cache can be specified per protocol. This option is required.
port num
Specifies the port number . The default port number is 323 for transport without any encryption and
22 for transport with SSH encryption.
refresh [keep] num
Time period in seconds. Tells how long to wait before next attempting to poll the cache using a
Serial Query or a Reset Query packet. Must be lower than 86400 seconds (one day). T oo low value
can caused a false positive detection of network connection problems. A keyword keep suppresses
updating this value by a cache server . Default: 3600 seconds
retry [keep] num
Time period in seconds between a failed Ser ial/Reset Query and a next attempt. Maximum allowed
value is 7200 seconds (two hours). T oo low value can caused a false positive detection of network
connection problems. A keyword keep suppresses updating this value by a cache server . Default:
600 seconds
expire [keep] num

Time period in seconds. Received records ar e deleted if the client was unable to successfully
refresh data for this time period. Must be in range from 600 seconds (ten minutes) to 172800
seconds (two days). A keyword keep suppresses updating this value by a cache server . Default:
7200 seconds
transport tcp
Unprotected transport over TCP. It's a default transport. Should be used only on secure pr ivate
networks. Default: tcp
transport ssh { SSH transport options... }
It enables a SSHv2 transport encryption. Cannot be combined with a TCP transport. Default: of f
SSH transport options

bird private key "/path/to/id_rsa"
A path to the BIRD's private SSH key for authentication. It can be a id_rsa file.
remote public key "/path/to/known_host"
A path to the cache's public SSH key for verification identity of the cache server . It could be a path
to known_host file.
user "name"
A SSH user name for authentication. This option is a required.
Examples
BGP origin validation
Policy: Don't import ROA_INVALID routes.
roa4 table r4;

roa6 table r6;
protocol rpki {
debug all;
roa4 { table r4; };

roa6 { table r6; };
# Please, do not use rpki-validator.realmv6.org in production

remote "rpki-validator.realmv6.org" port 8282;
retry keep 5;
refresh keep 30;
expire 600;
}
filter peer_in_v4 {
if (roa_check(r4, net, bgp_path.last) = ROA_INVALID) then
{
print "Ignore invalid ROA ", net, " for ASN ", bgp_path.last;
reject;
}
accept;
}
protocol bgp {
debug all;
local as 65000;
neighbor 192.168.2.1 as 65001;
ipv4 { import filter peer_in_v4; };
}
SSHv2 transport encryption
roa4 table r4;

roa6 table r6;
protocol rpki {
debug all;
roa4 { table r4; };

roa6 { table r6; };
remote 127.0.0.1 port 2345;

transport ssh {
bird private key "/home/birdgeek/.ssh/id_rsa";
remote public key "/home/birdgeek/.ssh/known_hosts";
user "birdgeek";
};
# Default interval values

}
6.12 Static
The Static protocol doesn't communicate with other routers in the network, but instead it allows you to
define routes manually. This is often used for specifying how to forward packets to parts of the network
which don't use dynamic routing at all and also for defining sink routes (i.e., those telling to return packets
as undeliverable if they are in your IP block, you don't have any specific destination for them and you don't
want to send them out through the default route to prevent routing loops).
There are three classes of definitions in Static protocol configuration -- global options, static route
definitions, and per-route options. Usually , the definition of the protocol contains mainly a list of static
routes. Static routes have no specific attributes.
Global options:
check link switch
If set, hardware link states of network interfaces are taken into consideration. When link disappears
(e.g. ethernet cable is unplugged), static routes directing to that interface are removed. It is possible
that some hardware drivers or platforms do not implement this feature. Default: of f.
igp table name
Specifies a table that is used for route table lookups of recursive routes. Default: the same table as
the protocol is connected to.
Route definitions (each may also contain a block of per-route options):
Regular routes; MPLS switching rules
There exist several types of routes; keep in mind that prefixsyntax is dependent on network type .
route prefix via ip|"interface" [mpls num[/num[/num[...]]]]
Next hop routes may bear one or more next hops. Every next hop is preceded by via and
configured as shown.
route prefix recursive ip [mpls num[/num[/num[...]]]]
Recursive nexthop resolves the given IP in the configured IGP table and uses that route's next hop.
The MPLS stacks are concatenated; on top is the IGP's nexthop stack and on bottom is this route's
stack.
route prefix blackhole|unreachable|prohibit
Special routes specifying to silently drop the packet, return it as unreachable or return it as
administratively prohibited. First two targets are also known as drop and reject.
When the particular destination is not available (the interface is down or the next hop of the route is not a
neighbor at the moment), Static just uninstalls the route from the table it is connected to and adds it again
as soon as the destination becomes adjacent again.
Route Origin Authorization
The ROA config is just route prefix max int as int with no nexthop.
Flowspec
The flow specification are rules for routers and firewalls for filtering purpose. It is described by RFC 5575.
There are 3 types of arguments: inet4 or inet6 prefixes, bitmasks matching expressions and numbers
matching expressions.
Bitmasks matching is written using value /mask or !value /mask pairs. It means that (data & mask ) is or is
not equal to value.
Numbers matching is a matching sequence of numbers and ranges separeted by a commas ( ,) (e.g.
10,20,30). Ranges can be written using double dots .. notation (e.g. 80..90,120..124). An alternative
notation are sequence of one or more pairs of relational operators and values separated by logical
operators && or ||. Allowed relational operators are =, !=, <, <=, >, >=, true and false.
IPv4 Flowspec
dst inet4
Set a matching destination prefix (e.g. dst 192.168.0.0/16). Only this option is mandatory in IPv4
Flowspec.
src inet4
Set a matching source prefix (e.g. src 10.0.0.0/8).
proto numbers-match
Set a matching IP protocol numbers (e.g. proto 6).
port numbers-match
Set a matching source or destination TCP/UDP port numbers (e.g. port 1..1023,1194,3306).
dport numbers-match
Set a mating destination port numbers (e.g. dport 49151).
sport numbers-match
Set a matching source port numbers (e.g. sport = 0).
icmp type numbers-match
Set a matching type field number of an ICMP packet (e.g. icmp type 3)
icmp code numbers-match
Set a matching code field number of an ICMP packet (e.g. icmp code 1)
tcp flags bitmask-match
Set a matching bitmask for TCP header flags (aka control bits) (e.g. tcp flags 0x03/0x0f;). The
maximum length of mask is 12 bits (0xf ff).
length numbers-match
Set a matching packet length (e.g. length > 1500;)
dscp numbers-match
Set a matching Dif fServ Code Point number ( e.g. length > 1500;).
fragment fragmentation-type
Set a matching type of packet fragmentation. Allowed fragmentation types are dont_fragment,
is_fragment, first_fragment, last_fragment (e.g. fragment is_fragment && !dont_fragment
).
protocol static {
flow4;
route flow4 {
dst 10.0.0.0/8;
port > 24 && < 30 || 40..50,60..70,80 && >= 90;
tcp flags 0x03/0x0f;
length > 1024;
dscp = 63;
fragment dont_fragment, is_fragment || !first_fragment;
};
}
Differences for IPv6 Flowspec
Flowspec IPv6 are same as Flowspec IPv4 with a few exceptions.
Prefixes inet6 can be specified not only with prefix length, but with prefix offset num too (e.g.
::1234:5678:9800:0000/101 offset 64 ). Offset means to don't care of num first bits.
IPv6 Flowspec hasn't mandatory any flowspec component.
In IPv6 packets, there is a matching the last next header value for a matching IP protocol number
(e.g. next header 6).
It is not possible to set dont_fragment as a type of packet fragmentation.
dst inet6 [offset num]
Set a matching destination IPv6 prefix (e.g. dst ::1c77:3769:27ad:a11a/128 offset 64

).
src inet6 [offset num]
Set a matching source IPv6 prefix (e.g. src fe80::/64).
next header numbers-match
Set a matching IP protocol numbers (e.g. next header != 6).
label bitmask-match
Set a 20-bit bitmask for matching Flow Label field in IPv6 packets (e.g. label 0x8e5/0x8e5).
protocol static {
flow6 { table myflow6; };
route flow6 {
dst fec0:1122:3344:5566:7788:99aa:bbcc:ddee/128;
src 0000:0000:0000:0001:1234:5678:9800:0000/101 offset 63;
next header = 23;
sport > 24 && < 30 || = 40 || 50,60,70..80;
dport = 50;
tcp flags 0x03/0x0f, !0/0xff || 0x33/0x33;
fragment !is_fragment || !first_fragment;
label 0xaaaa/0xaaaa && 0x33/0x33;
};
}
Per-route options
bfd switch
The Static protocol could use BFD protocol for next hop liveness detection. If enabled, a BFD
session to the route next hop is created and the static route is BFD-controlled -- the static route is
announced only if the next hop liveness is confirmed by BFD. If the BFD session fails, the static
route is removed. Note that this is a bit dif ferent compared to other protocols, which may use BFD
as an advisory mechanism for fast failure detection but ignores it if a BFD session is not even
established.
This option can be used for static routes with a direct next hop, or also for for individual next hops in
a static multipath route (see above). Note that BFD protocol also has to be configured, see BFD
section for details. Default value is no.
filter expression
This is a special option that allows filter expressions to be configured on per-route basis. Can be
used multiple times. These expressions are evaluated when the route is originated, similarly to the
import filter of the static protocol. This is especially useful for configuring route attributes, e.g.,
ospf_metric1 = 100;for a route that will be exported to the OSPF protocol.
Example static config
protocol static {
ipv4 { table testable; }; # Connect to a non-default routing table
check link; # Advertise routes only if link is up
route 0.0.0.0/0 via 198.51.100.130; # Default route
route 10.0.0.0/8 # Multipath route
via 198.51.100.10 weight 2
via 198.51.100.20 bfd # BFD-controlled next hop
via 192.0.2.1;
route 203.0.113.0/24 unreachable; # Sink route
route 10.2.0.0/24 via "arc0"; # Secondary network
route 192.168.10.0/24 via 198.51.100.100 {
ospf_metric1 = 20; # Set extended attribute
}
route 192.168.10.0/24 via 198.51.100.100 {
ospf_metric2 = 100; # Set extended attribute
ospf_tag = 2; # Set extended attribute
bfd; # BFD-controlled route
}
}
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protocol babel [<name>] {

ipv4|ipv6 channel config

The supported channels are IPv4 and IPv6.

hello interval time s|ms

update interval time s|ms

check link switch

next hop ipv4 address

next hop ipv6 address

# This matches the default of babeld: redistribute all addresses

protocol bfd [<name>] {

interface pattern [, ...] { options }

Session specific options (part of interface and multihop definitions):

min rx interval time

min tx interval time

No passwords are sent in BFD packets. This is the default value.

authentication [meticulous] keyed md5|sha1

RFC 4271 - Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP)

Route selection rules

Prefer route with the highest Local Preference attribute.

IGP routing table

local [ip] as number

neighbor [ip] [port number] [as number]

strict bind switch

check link switch

ttl security switch

confederation member switch

rr cluster id IPv4 address

allow local as [number]

enable route refresh switch

graceful restart time number

interpret communities switch

enable as4 switch

enable extended messagesswitch

advertise ipv4 switch

disable after error switch

hold time number

startup hold time number

connect delay time number

connect retry time number

error wait time number,number

error forget time number

med metric switch

deterministic med switch

igp metric switch

prefer older switch

default bgp_local_pref number

next hop keep

next hop self

missing lladdr self|drop|ignore

igp table name

add paths switch|rx|tx

Although BGP graceful restart is configured mainly by protocol-wide options, it is possible to

int bgp_local_pref/ [I]

int bgp_med/ [O]

void bgp_atomic_aggr/ [O]

clist bgp_community/ [O]

eclist bgp_ext_community/ [O]