Exterior Gateway Protocol

This article is about the specific protocol used on the early Internet. For routing protocols used to interconnect network systems, see Exterior gateway protocol.

The Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) is a now obsolete routing protocol for the Internet originally specified in 1982 by Eric C. Rosen of Bolt, Beranek and Newman, and David L. Mills.

Information

EGP was developed by Bolt, Beranek and Newman in the early 1980s. It was first described in RFC 827 and formally specified in RFC 904 (1984). EGP is a simple reachability protocol, and, unlike modern distance-vector and path-vector protocols, it is limited to tree-like topologies.

During the early days of the Internet, EGP version 3 (EGP3) was used to interconnect autonomous systems. Currently, BGP version 4 is the accepted standard for Internet routing and has essentially replaced the more limited EGP3.

See also

• Interior gateway protocol