BGP and multihoming for colocation customers
Quick answer
BGP is the routing protocol that lets you announce your own IP address space to the internet and control how it's reached. Multihoming means announcing that space through more than one upstream network at once, so a problem with one path doesn't take your whole range offline. Colocation is where this normally happens, because the model puts a router you control at the edge of your own hardware instead of behind a network the provider manages end to end. Worldstream also announces customer-held IPv4 space on request, which is a different route to the same goal and doesn't need you to run BGP yourself.
What BGP is, and why you'd run it yourself
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the routing protocol that holds the internet together at the level of networks talking to networks. Every organisation that runs its own block of IP addresses uses BGP to announce that block, telling the rest of the internet "traffic for this range should come to me, via this path." Without running BGP yourself, your IP space is only reachable through whichever single network happens to be announcing it on your behalf.
Most customers never need to touch this: a VPS or a standard dedicated server uses IP addresses that the hosting provider announces for you, as part of the provider's own network. Running your own BGP session only makes sense once you're managing your own address space, typically IPv4 space you've been allocated or authorised to use under a Letter of Authorization, and you want direct control over how that space is routed. See LOA: Letter of Authorization announcing IPv4 space for how that authorisation works.
What multihoming actually means
Multihoming means announcing your IP prefix (your block of addresses) to more than one upstream transit provider at the same time, rather than relying on a single provider for connectivity. Each upstream forms its own BGP session with your router and advertises your prefix onward into the wider internet. The practical benefit is redundancy: if one upstream has an outage, a fibre cut, or a routing problem, your prefix is still reachable through the other, and BGP handles the failover automatically by routing around the failed path.
Multihoming can also be used to influence performance, favouring one upstream's path over another for particular traffic, but redundancy is the reason most colocation customers set it up in the first place.
Why colocation is where this happens
Multihoming needs a router that you control, sitting at a point in the network where you can physically connect to more than one upstream provider. That is what the colocation model is built around: your own hardware in a datacenter, connected onward to the carriers and networks present at that site. A VPS or a standard dedicated server doesn't offer that, the network layer above the server is the provider's own infrastructure, shared across many customers, and not something an individual customer configures BGP sessions on.
What you need, at a conceptual level
| Requirement | Why you need it |
|---|---|
| Your own ASN (Autonomous System Number) | Identifies your network to the rest of the internet in BGP; it's how other networks know who's originating your announcements |
| Your own IP allocation, or LOA-authorised space | You can only announce address space you're authorised to announce, see the LOA article for how that authorisation is evidenced |
| A BGP-speaking router | The device that actually forms sessions with each upstream and sends and receives route announcements |
| An agreement with the datacenter or carriers present on peering | Physical cross-connects and a peering or transit agreement with each upstream you want to multihome through |
None of this is unique to any one provider, it's how multihoming works anywhere colocation is offered. What differs between datacenters is which carriers and networks are actually present to peer or transit with, and what the cross-connect process looks like locally. To find out which of this is available on a Worldstream colocation setup, open a support ticket in Portal and ask.
Announcing your own IP space through Worldstream
One piece of this is a standard Worldstream service, and it does not require you to run BGP at all. Worldstream announces IPv4 space that you hold, on request. It is usually called bring your own IP range, and it means your prefix is originated from Worldstream's network rather than from a router of your own.
Four things have to be in place before the announcement starts:
- A signed Letter of Authorization from the registered holder of the range.
- The range is not announced anywhere else.
- A route object at your regional internet registry, created against AS49981, Worldstream's ASN, or against your own ASN.
- An RPKI ROA for the range, matching that origin ASN.
Intake runs by e-mail, at support@worldstream.com. A one-time administrative fee per subnet applies, and this article does not state the amount: ask support, or check worldstream.com. LOA: Letter of Authorization announcing IPv4 space covers each requirement in detail.
What this article cannot tell you is how far the rest goes. Whether you can run your own BGP sessions from a Worldstream colocation rack, cross-connect to a third-party carrier there, or announce the same prefix through Worldstream and another network at the same time are all questions for support, not for a page that would have to guess at the answer.
Next step: if you only need your range announced, mail support@worldstream.com with the prefixes and your signed LOA. If you need your own BGP sessions or multihoming on top of that, open a support ticket in Portal describing the setup you want and ask what is possible.