BIRD (recursive acronym for ''BIRD Internet Routing Daemon'') is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

implementation for

routing Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone netw ...

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. ...

packets on

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating systems. It was developed as a school project at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics,

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , under ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, and is distributed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

. BIRD supports

Internet Protocol version 4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP). It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. IPv4 was the first version de ...

and version 6 by running separate daemons. It establishes multiple routing tables, and uses

BGP Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. BGP is classified as a path-vector routing protocol, and it makes ...

RIP Rest in peace (RIP), a phrase from the Latin (), is sometimes used in traditional Christian services and prayers, such as in the Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist denominations, to wish the soul of a decedent eternal rest and peace. ...

, and

OSPF Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing (LSR) algorithm and falls into the group of interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single autonomous syst ...

routing protocols, as well as statically defined routes. Its design differs significantly from

GNU Zebra Zebra is a routing software package that provides TCP/IP based routing services with routing protocols support such as RIP, OSPF and BGP. Zebra also supports special BGP Route Reflector and Route Server behavior. In addition to traditional I ...

, Quagga and

FRRouting Free Range Routing or FRRouting or FRR is a network routing software suite running on Unix-like platforms, particularly Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and NetBSD. It was created as a fork from Quagga. FRRouting is distributed under the terms ...

. Currently BIRD is included in many Linux distributions, such as

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

and

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both side ...

. BIRD is used in several Internet exchanges, such as the

London Internet Exchange The London Internet Exchange ("LINX") is a mutually governed Internet exchange point (IXP) that provides peering services and public policy representation to network operators (over 950 different ASNs). It was founded in 1994 in London. L ...

(LINX),

LONAP The London Access Point (LONAP) is a London-based Internet exchange point (IXP) founded in 1997 as a membership organisation and currently has over 200 members, making it the second largest IXP in the UK and around the 15th largest IXP in the w ...

DE-CIX DE-CIX (Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange) is an operator of carrier- and data-center-neutral Internet Exchanges, with operations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. All DE-CIX activities and companies ...

and

MSK-IX MSK-IX (Moscow Internet eXchange) is an Internet eXchange Point (IXP) with headquarters in Moscow, Russia. With over 549 connected networks and 3,37Tbps of peak traffic (November 2019), MSK-IX is one of the world's largest IXPs. According to t ...

as a

route server A route server is a computer server that was originally developed by the Routing Arbiter project, with funding from the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States governme ...

, where it replaced Quagga because of its scalability issues. According to the 2012 Euro-IX survey, BIRD is the most used route server amongst European Internet exchanges. In 2010, CZ.NIC, the current sponsor of BIRD development, received the LINX Conspicuous Contribution Award for contribution of BIRD to the advancement in route server technology.

Design

BIRD implements an internal routing table to which the supported protocols connect. Most of these protocols import network routes to this internal routing table and also export network routes from this internal routing table to the given protocol. This way information about network routes is exchanged among different routing protocols. Using the kernel protocol this internal routing table may be connected to the actual kernel routing table. This allows BIRD to export network routes from its internal routing table to the kernel routing table and optionally also learn about network routes from the kernel routing table (created externally by the administrator or by other means) and import these routes into its internal routing table. Filters may be used to control what network routes are imported into the internal routing table or exported to the given protocol. Network routes may be accepted, rejected or modified using filters. BIRD also supports multiple internal routing tables and multiple instances of supported protocol types. Protocols may be connected to different internal routing tables, these internal routing tables may exchange information about network routes they contain (controlled by filters) and each of these internal routing tables may be connected to a different kernel routing table thus allowing for policy routing. Configuration is done by editing the configuration file and telling BIRD to reconfigure itself. BIRD changes to the new configuration without the need to restart the daemon itself and restarts reconfigured protocols only if necessary. There is also an option to do a soft reconfiguration, which doesn't restart protocols but may leave some stale information such as changed filters not filtering out already exported network routes.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://bird.network.cz/
Bird Documentation

Bloom-Bird: A Scalable Open Source Router Based on Bloom Filter
Free routing software Free software projects

Design

See also

References

External links