--- title: Leave BGP Next Hops Unchanged on Reflected Routes «... description: BGP route reflectors were designed to solve the information propagation problem, not path optimization. Changing the BGP next hop on reflected routes forces... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/leave-bgp-next-hops-unchanged-on-reflected-routes-ipspace-net-blog-uamcgldw6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Leave BGP Next Hops Unchanged on Reflected Routes « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: BGP route reflectors were designed to solve the information propagation problem, not path optimization. Changing the BGP next hop on reflected routes forces... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/leave-bgp-next-hops-unchanged-on-reflected-routes-ipspace-net-blog-uamcgldw6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/uAMCGlDW6.png og:image:alt: Leave BGP Next Hops Unchanged on Reflected Routes « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Leave BGP Next Hops Unchanged on Reflected Routes « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary BGP route reflectors were designed to solve the information propagation problem, not path optimization. Changing the BGP next hop on reflected routes forces all traffic through the route reflector, which historically caused performance bottlenecks when forwarding was software-based. Even with modern hardware forwarding, changing next hops in fabric designs breaks overlay technologies like SRv6, EVPN, and VXLAN by forcing tenant traffic onto spine switches that would need full VRF/VLAN configuration and polluted forwarding tables. The only known valid use case for changing next hops on reflected routes is hub-and-spoke DMVPN tunnels (and possibly Seamless MPLS/BGP-LU inter-region designs). EBGP-only fabrics face their own next-hop challenges with EVPN, requiring awkward workarounds. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do BGP route reflectors not change the next hop for IBGP-learned routes? BGP route reflectors solve the information propagation problem, not path optimization. Changing the next hop would force all traffic through the route reflector, historically a disaster when forwarding was software-based. Even with hardware forwarding, it breaks overlay technologies like SRv6, EVPN, and VXLAN by routing tenant traffic through spine switches that would need full VRF/VLAN tables and would accumulate every tenant's MAC/IP entries. _Network engineers navigating BGP fabric design trade-offs share findings like these on daily.dev._ ### When is it acceptable to change the BGP next hop on a route reflector? The primary valid use case is hub-and-spoke DMVPN tunnels, where the hub must be in the forwarding path. A similar case applies to Seamless MPLS (also called Unified MPLS by Cisco), which uses BGP-LU across IGP region borders with in-band route reflectors that change next hops to create MPLS transport islands. Outside these scenarios, changing next hops on reflected routes is strongly discouraged. _Engineers designing SP or DC networks track edge cases like Seamless MPLS on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/leave-bgp-next-hops-unchanged-on-reflected-routes-ipspace-net-blog-uamcgldw6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Leave BGP Next Hops Unchanged on Reflected Routes « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/leave-bgp-next-hops-unchanged-on-reflected-routes-ipspace-net-blog-uamcgldw6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/leave-bgp-next-hops-unchanged-on-reflected-routes-ipspace-net-blog-uamcgldw6"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:54:54.766Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:25:29.101Z","description":"BGP route reflectors were designed to solve the information propagation problem, not path optimization. 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Changing the next hop would force all traffic through the route reflector, historically a disaster when forwarding was software-based. Even with hardware forwarding, it breaks overlay technologies like SRv6, EVPN, and VXLAN by routing tenant traffic through spine switches that would need full VRF/VLAN tables and would accumulate every tenant's MAC/IP entries. Network engineers navigating BGP fabric design trade-offs share findings like these on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"When is it acceptable to change the BGP next hop on a route reflector?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The primary valid use case is hub-and-spoke DMVPN tunnels, where the hub must be in the forwarding path. A similar case applies to Seamless MPLS (also called Unified MPLS by Cisco), which uses BGP-LU across IGP region borders with in-band route reflectors that change next hops to create MPLS transport islands. Outside these scenarios, changing next hops on reflected routes is strongly discouraged. Engineers designing SP or DC networks track edge cases like Seamless MPLS on daily.dev."}}]} ```