| Internet-Draft | BMP Monitoring Options | September 2026 |
| Geng & Zhuang | Expires 3 April 2027 | [Page] |
The BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) allows routers to export BGP RIB data and statistics to external collectors. However, dynamic changes to a router's monitoring configuration—such as disabling specific Address Families or statistic counters—are not explicitly signaled to the collector. Consequently, collectors cannot distinguish between a quiescent BGP state and a disabled monitoring feed, leading to data staleness and database pollution.¶
This document defines a new BMP message type, the BMP Monitoring Options (MO) message. It allows a BMP Sender to explicitly notify collectors of active, disabled, or dynamically altered reporting configurations across RIB types and statistics streams.¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
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Modern networks frequently adjust BMP telemetry parameters based on network load, operational focus, or troubleshooting needs. For instance, an operator may dynamically disable Adj-RIB-Out reporting or stop monitoring specific VPN address families via router CLI.¶
Under [RFC7854], BMP provides no in-band mechanism for a sender to signal configuration changes to a collector. When an address family's monitoring is disabled on the router, the sender simply stops sending BMP messages for that family. The collector cannot determine whether no updates are occurring or if the stream was administratively disabled. As a result, stored RIB views become stale and invalid.¶
This document defines the BMP Monitoring Options (MO) message (Type TBD2). This message explicitly signals enabled or disabled state for RIB address families and statistic types, ensuring real-time database hygiene on the collector.¶
MO: Monitoring Options¶
The BMP Monitoring Options message (Type TBD2) follows the Common BMP Header and optional Per-Peer Header. Two distinct PDU formats are defined: RIB Options PDU and Statistics Options PDU.¶
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | SubType |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Flags | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| AFI 1 | Reserved | SAFI 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| ... |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| AFI n | Reserved | SAFI n |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 1: BMP RIB Monitoring Options PDU
¶
Fields:¶
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Flags |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Length | Stat Type 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Stat Type 2 | ... |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 2: BMP Stats Monitoring Options PDU
¶
Fields:¶
Upon establishing a BMP session, the sender SHOULD transmit an initial MO message enumerating all currently active monitoring options.¶
When an operator disables monitoring for a specific family (e.g., AFI=1, SAFI=2) via CLI:¶
Consider a topology where a BGP session is established between Router1 and Router2. Three address families are enabled on both BGP speakers: IPv4 Unicast (AFI=1, SAFI=1), IPv4 Multicast (AFI=1, SAFI=2), and IPv4 Labeled Unicast (AFI=1, SAFI=4). Router1 acts as the BMP Sender streaming data to the BMP Collector.¶
BMP Collector
|
|
| BGP Session
Router1 (BMP Sender) ------------ Router2
Figure 3: Topology Example for BMP MO
¶
1. Initial Export Sequence:¶
Upon initializing the BMP session, the BMP Sender exports initial Route Monitoring messages for all three active address families.¶
BMP Sender BMP Collector
~ ~
|---------------- Initial Export ---------->| Sender sends Route
| | Monitoring messages for
| | IPv4 Unicast, Multicast,
| | and Labeled Unicast
| |
| | Collector stores RIB info
| | for all three families
Figure 4: Initial Route Monitoring Export Sequence
¶
2. Disabling Monitoring Options:¶
When an operator dynamically disables monitoring for the IPv4 Multicast address family (AFI=1, SAFI=2) on the sender:¶
BMP Sender BMP Collector
|-- MO Msg (AFI 1/SAFI 2, Disable) -------->| Sender sends MO Message
| |
| | Collector purges the IPv4
| | Multicast RIB view for
| | this specific BGP peer
Figure 5: Disabling Monitoring for IPv4 Multicast Family
¶
Similarly, if monitoring for IPv4 Labeled Unicast (AFI=1, SAFI=4) is subsequently disabled:¶
BMP Sender BMP Collector |-- MO Msg (AFI 1/SAFI 4, Disable) -------->| Sender sends MO Message | | | | Collector purges the IPv4 | | Labeled Unicast RIB view | | for this specific peer Figure 6: Disabling Monitoring for IPv4 Labeled Unicast Family¶
3. Re-enabling Monitoring Options:¶
When monitoring for IPv4 Multicast (AFI=1, SAFI=2) is re-enabled, the sender notifies the collector via an MO message and resumes streaming Route Monitoring messages for that view:¶
BMP Sender BMP Collector
|-- MO Msg (AFI 1/SAFI 2, Enable) --------->| Sender sends MO Message
| |
|-- BMP RM Msg (AFI 1/SAFI 2) ------------->| Sender streams Route
|-- .......... ---------------------------->| Monitoring updates for
|-- BMP RM Msg (AFI 1/SAFI 2) ------------->| IPv4 Multicast view
| |
| | Collector restores and
| | stores the RIB view
Figure 7: Re-enabling Monitoring for IPv4 Multicast Family
¶
Unauthorized MO messages could trick a collector into purging its entire monitored database by sending fake "Disable" options. Mutual authentication and transport protection (e.g., TLS) MUST be used.¶
This document requests IANA to allocate a new message type code from the "BMP Message Types" registry:¶
+------+-------------------------------+---------------+ | Type | Description | Reference | +------+-------------------------------+---------------+ | TBD2 | BMP Monitoring Options (MO) | This document | +------+-------------------------------+---------------+¶
IANA is also requested to create a new sub-registry: "BMP Monitoring Options PDU Types":¶
TBD¶