In this episode of PING, APNIC’s Chief Scientist, Geoff Huston, discusses "a day in the life of BGP" -Not an extraordinary day, not a special day, just the 8th of May.

What happens inside the BGP system, from the point of view of AS4608, one ordinary BGP speaker on the edge of the network? What kinds of things are seen, and why are they seen?

Geoff has been measuring BGP for almost it's entire life as the internet routing protocol, but this time looks at the dynamics at a more "micro" level than usual. In particular there are some things about the rate of messages and changes which points to the problems BGP faces. A small number of BGP speakers produce the vast majority of change, and overall the network information BGP speakers have to deal with as a persisting view of the world increases more slowly. Both kinds of message dynamics have to be dealt with.

Can we fix this? Is there even anything worth fixing here, or is BGP just doing fine?

Read more about the dynamics of BGP on the APNIC Blog:

• A Day in the life of BGP (Geoff Huston June 2025 APNIC Blog)
• BGP topics at the APNIC Blog
• Geoff's archive of BGP data at bgp.potaroo.net