Internet Direct

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

BGP is a dynamic routing protocol that allows Autonomous Systems (differentiated by an AS number) to control how their networks are advertised to the rest of the Internet. An autonomous system is a set of routers sharing a routing policy and generally running under a single technical administration. To the rest of the world, an AS is viewed as a single entity.

Customers connecting to Telstra Internet Direct who are multihomed (ie. customers who have multiple upstream service providers or multiple services to Telstra Internet Direct) and who have a minimum bandwidth for each service of 64kbps, may choose to implement BGP (version 4) on their routers in order to peer with Telstra. If a customer has multiple upstream service providers, they will need to use a non-private AS number in the peering configuration. If the customer is connected to the Internet only via Telstra Internet Direct, a private AS number can be assigned. If a customer needs a public AS number, they can apply online at www.apnic.net. Any costs involved in obtaining an AS number from APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) are available from the APNIC web site.

Please note: BGP is not available on Modem or ADSL services connected to Internet Direct.

When requesting a BGP peering session with Telstra Internet Direct, a number of options are available depending on the amount of network information required. The options are:

  1. No routing information - this is advisable for small end routers with low memory
  2. Default only - a single announcement of the network 0.0.0.0/0 to the customer
  3. Domestic routes - routes originating mostly in Australia
  4. Full routing - in excess of 100,000 individual routes and requires a router with 128Mb or more of memory (not advisable for services of less than 256k bandwidth).

The last option requires 2 BGP peering sessions to be configured since access routers do not carry the full BGP table.

You can send your BGP Routing activation request to bgp@telstra.net.

Note: bgp@telstra.net does not provide support for general queries or changes.

Please provide the following information in your e-mail:

  1. Company Name
  2. Billing number
  3. Basic Carriage Service FNN number or Service FNN number or the ops handle for the service
  4. Autonomous System number (AS number)
  5. Your BPG Peering address (specify the number of hops if it is not directly connected)
  6. A list of the networks to be provided in CIDR format
  7. The announcements you wish to see from Telstra (See above).