Idle state

Idle state The Idle state is the first state that a BGP speaker enters when starting a BGP
session. In this state, the BGP speaker is waiting for a BGP start event, refuses all incoming
BGP connections, and does not initiate any BGP connections. The start event can be initiated
by either the BGP speaker or the system administrator. Once a start event has occurred,
the BGP speaker will initialize all of its BGP resources. The BGP speaker then starts the
ConnectRetry timer, initiates a TCP connection to the BGP speaker that it wants to peer
with, and also listens for any connection attempt started by the other BGP speaker. The
BGP speaker then changes its BGP state to Connect. If any errors occur during this process,
the TCP session is ended and the BGP speaker’s state transitions back to Idle. A new start
event needs to occur for the BGP speaker to attempt the connection again. If the start events
are being automatically generated, the BGP speaker will wait 60 seconds before it retries the
connection. For each successive retry from then on, the time will double. This helps alleviate
persistent flapping of the BGP speaker.