KEEPALIVE Message

KEEPALIVE Message
KEEPALIVE messages are used to ensure that connectivity still exists between peers. The KEEPALIVE
message is made up of only the fixed-size BGP message header. A KEEPALIVE message will
be sent in order to restart the hold timer. The interval at which a KEEPALIVE message is sent is recommended
to be one-third the holdtime value. This is why the holdtime must be at least 3 seconds
if it is not 0. A KEEPALIVE message will not be sent if an UPDATE message was sent during this
period of time. If the holdtime is set to 0, a KEEPALIVE message will never be sent.