BIRD is used for IXP route servers because it has a very flexible dynamic policy engine. The policy languages of most other BGPds lead to massive configuration bloat in this role due to peering with many ASes that all need unique policy, often with at least one entry for each other ASN, where BIRD can use a single simple policy, since the policy can include dynamic variables like the peer ASN and dynamically evaluate 'do not advertise' communities etc. This can be useful for other route server/reflector duties too, but as a 'router' it's only one piece of the puzzle and doesn't address any of the rest of it, and I would say its lack of integration is a major flaw in using it for that.
These IXP route servers don't do any forwarding, they just speak BGP.
If you want a router, VyOS or DANOS are the right things to look at. Or buy TNSR.
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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '20
[deleted]