BGP Communities Explained

Hello Ali

I see, you’re talking about the two different types of BGP communities, the standard and extended communities. These are two different ways of representing communities. The standard BGP community is defined by a 32-bit number that can be included with a route within the BGP update. A community is actually an optional transitive attribute.

Now an extended BGP community is simply a redefining of the BGP header that allows a 64-bit number to represent the community rather than a 32-bit number. This simply gives more granularity to the configuration of various attributes. In particular, extended BGP communities provide structure for various classes of information and are very often used for VPN services. The extended communities format is explained in detail in RFC 4360.

Now this should not be confused with a Private BGP community. Private BGP communities follow the convention that the first 16-bits represent the AS of the community origination, and the second 16-bits represent a pattern defined by the originating AS. The private BGP community pattern could vary from organization to organization, do not need to be registered or published. That’s the meaning of the word “private” in the title.

You can find more info about all of these at the following links:

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz