You want to learn about BGP in order to understand how routing on the internet works. The book "BGP" by Iljitsch van Beijnum is a great place to start. Don't be

You want to learn about BGP in order to understand how routing on the internet works. The book "BGP" by Iljitsch van Beijnum is a great place to start. Don't be put off by the publication date, as almost everything in there is still relevant.[1] Once you understand BGP and Autonomous Systems(AS), you can then understand peering as well as some of the politics that surround it.[2] Then you can learn more about how specific networks are connected via public route servers and looking glass servers.[3][4][5] Probably one of the best resource though still is to work for an ISP or other network provider for a stint. [1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/bgp/9780596002541/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/bgp/9780596002541/ [2] http://drpeering.net/white-papers/Internet-Service-Providers-And-Peering.html http://drpeering.net/white-papers/Internet-Service-Providers... [3] http://www.traceroute.org/#Looking%20Glass http://www.traceroute.org/#Looking%20Glass [4] http://www.traceroute.org/#Route%20Servers http://www.traceroute.org/#Route%20Servers [5] http://www.routeviews.org/routeviews/ http://www.routeviews.org/routeviews/