What is BGP? A Simple Explanation Every Network Engineer Should Know

BGP isn’t just “the internet’s protocol”—it’s the most flexible policy engine in networking. In this episode of The Art of Network Engineering, Andy Lapteff and Jeff Clark sit down with Kevin Myers (aka StubArea51) to unpack Border Gateway Protocol from the ground up: why BGP replaced EGP, how policy differs from IGP topology, and where iBGP shines inside modern enterprises.

You’ll hear practical patterns for BGP communities (standard, extended, and large), how to tag and filter at scale, and why this beats sprawling prefix lists and brittle ACLs. Kevin walks through real merger scenarios—solving overlappingRFC1918 space with communities, when to NAT vs. renumber, and why IPv6 is a secret weapon for management domains. We also cover iBGP loop prevention, route reflectors vs. full-mesh, the attributes that actually matter (local-pref > weight/MED in most shops), and how SD-WAN leans on BGP under the hood.

If you’ve ever wondered why BGP ended up everywhere—WAN, SD-WAN, and even data centers—this conversation connects the dots with clear, battle-tested examples.

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