BGP ROUTING PROTOCOL
Large networks like the Internet aren't one single network, they're thousands of independently managed networks that all need a way to exchange routing information. That's the job BGP, or Border Gateway Protocol, was built to do.
Each independently managed network is called an autonomous system, or AS. It controls its own internal routing, but still needs a way to tell other autonomous systems which networks it can reach.
Two BGP routers exchange this information through a connection called a peering session, and each route they share comes with path attributes, details like AS-Path, the list of autonomous systems a route has passed through, and Next-Hop, which says where to send traffic next. BGP uses these to pick the best path, an approach known as path vector routing since it's based on the path traveled rather than just distance or speed.
Without a shared protocol like this, autonomous systems would have no reliable way to agree on how traffic should flow between them. BGP is what lets an ISP in one part of the world know how to reach a network on the other side of it.
You can think of it like countries exchanging travel routes:
β’ Autonomous system = A country, managing its own roads internally
β’ BGP router = The border checkpoint, sharing route information with others
β’ Peering session = An agreement between two countries to exchange that information
β’ AS-Path = The list of countries a route has already passed through
BGP quietly runs the Internet's backbone, and understanding it is essential for anyone working with large-scale networks or troubleshooting how traffic moves between ISPs.