BGP Communities Attribute with send-community

[zlb]

COMMUNITIES path attribute is an optional transitive attribute as described in RFC1997。

But in IOS by default, BGP community attributes are not advertised to peers. The neighbor send-community command enables the sending of BGP community attributes to BGP peers.

Why an optional transitive attribute needed a explicit command to advertise it.

[pradeepde]

This URL might help you:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6566/products_feature_guide09186a0080525243.html

[m.lammerse]

The command is just there because it's an optional feature. And it provides flexibility. You might not want to accidentally pass on attributes to your bgp peers. If the command is not confgured, that will obviously not happen.

I wouldn't look for a 'deeper meaning' in the syntax. It just works this way.

HTH

Marcel