Route Reflector

A route reflector (RR) is a network routing component. It offers an alternative to the logical full-mesh requirement of internal border gateway protocol (IBGP). An RR acts as a focal point for IBGP sessions. The purpose of the RR is concentration. Multiple BGP routers can peer with a central point, the RR - acting as a route reflector server - rather than peer with every other router in a full mesh. All the other IBGP routers become route reflector clients.

This approach, similar to OSPF's DR/BDR feature, provides large networks with added IBGP scalability. In a fully meshed IBGP network of 10 routers, 100 individual statements (spread throughout all routers in the topology) are needed just to define the remote-AS of each peer: this quickly becomes a headache to administer. A RR topology could cut these 100 statements down to 20, offering a viable solution for the larger networks administered by ISPs.

A route reflector is a single point of failure, therefore (at least) a second route reflector should be configured in order to provide redundancy.