--- title: Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network «... description: A repost of a detailed comment by Daryll Swer describing his real-world experience designing eBGP-driven Service Provider and data center networks using... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A repost of a detailed comment by Daryll Swer describing his real-world experience designing eBGP-driven Service Provider and data center networks using... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ByoYBuWk4.png og:image:alt: Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network « 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. # Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A repost of a detailed comment by Daryll Swer describing his real-world experience designing eBGP-driven Service Provider and data center networks using private autonomous systems. The design avoids full-mesh iBGP and route reflectors, instead using eBGP for vertical paths with private ASNs and default routes, while limiting IGP and iBGP to loopback learning for adjacent peers. The approach extends eBGP all the way to the host in DC environments, supports BGP multipathing for Kubernetes load balancing, and uses BGP communities for traffic engineering. Swer notes that while RFC 7938 (no IGP/iBGP at all) is too extreme, a mostly-eBGP design with selective IGP use is practical and has been proven in production across multiple countries. The blog author adds a historical parallel to similar unconventional BGP designs from 25 years ago and cautions that highly novel network designs may expose undiscovered bugs. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What are the advantages of using eBGP instead of iBGP with route reflectors in a service provider or data center network? eBGP-driven networks avoid the full-mesh complexity and route-reflector overhead of iBGP, while offering granular traffic engineering via route filters and BGP communities. eBGP scales well, supports multipathing (ECMP/UCMP) for load balancing, and can extend all the way to the host in DC environments. IGP is still used, but only for loopback learning between adjacent peers rather than as the primary routing protocol. _Network engineers weighing iBGP vs eBGP design trade-offs for large-scale deployments follow discussions like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [BGP-Free Network Core with SRv6 « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/bgp-free-network-core-with-srv6-ipspace-net-blog-9bbn88wub) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [BGP-Free Core with SR-MPLS « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/bgp-free-core-with-sr-mpls-ipspace-net-blog-h7kronzy3) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4) ```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":"Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:55:27.665Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:33:37.008Z","description":"A repost of a detailed comment by Daryll Swer describing his real-world experience designing eBGP-driven Service Provider and data center networks using...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ipSpace.net Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ipSpace.net Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xS7E82MT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438303/logos/ipspace?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"bgp","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ipSpace.net Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Repost: EBGP-Mostly Service Provider Network « ipSpace.net blog"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-ebgp-mostly-service-provider-network-ipspace-net-blog-byoybuwk4#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What are the advantages of using eBGP instead of iBGP with route reflectors in a service provider or data center network?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"eBGP-driven networks avoid the full-mesh complexity and route-reflector overhead of iBGP, while offering granular traffic engineering via route filters and BGP communities. eBGP scales well, supports multipathing (ECMP/UCMP) for load balancing, and can extend all the way to the host in DC environments. 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