APNIC Cisco Systems BGP is the routing protocol used to tie the Autonomous Systems (ASes) of the Internet together. The ongoing stability of BGP in the face of arbitrary inputs, both malicious and unintentional, is of primary importance to the overall stability of the Internet. The overall issue is not a new one. Previously, one aspect of stability, known as route flap damping was originally discussed in RFC 2439. In the intervening years, a great deal of experience with flap damping and other stability concerns has been accumulated. Most recently, the issue of BGP stability has been highlighted in RAWS. This document describes the experience that has been gained concerning stability in the intervening years, hypotheses about remaining problems, suggestions for experiments to be performed, and proposals for possible alternatives.