What is indicated by the BGP Connect state?

The BGP Connect state indicates that the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is currently in the process of completing a three-way handshake (3WHS) that is essential for establishing a TCP connection with a peer. During this state, BGP is not yet fully operational and is waiting for the completion of the TCP handshake before moving to the Established state, where actual routing information exchange occurs.

When BGP enters the Connect state, it has already initiated a connection to another BGP speaker but is still working on ensuring that a reliable transport layer connection is achieved. After successfully moving past the Connect state, BGP transitions to the OpenSent state, where it will send an Open message to the peer and await a response, ultimately leading to the Established state where routing updates can be exchanged.

Understanding this state is crucial for network troubleshooting and analysis since the connection must be properly established for BGP to function effectively.