What Is Edge Router?

You may have heard the saying that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. You have yet to learn that there is someone at the end of the tunnel to stop you from going further. We are kidding, but the situation is similar to the gatekeeper ever before. The gatekeeper, you ask? It's the edge router. It's the gatekeeper to your life. Edge routers are essentially the lifeblood of your network: They're the ones who keep you connected to the rest of the world, so you can do all that important stuff like emailing your mom and watching Netflix. There's more than just connectivity going on here! An edge router is a specialized router residing at the edge or boundary of a network. This router connects its network with external networks, large area networks, or the Internet. An edge router uses an External Border Gateway Protocol, used extensively over the Internet to provide connectivity with remote networks. The term "edge router" is a bit of a misnomer. It's not a router or on the edge of anything. An edge router is a router that provides communication between different networks and autonomous systems. In other words, your core router will handle that connection if you have an internal network (like your company's) and want to connect to the Internet. If you're going to connect to a different network (like a local coffee shop), or if you're already connected to one network (like the Internet) and now want to connect to another network (like the one at your local coffee shop), then an edge router will handle those connections for you. So what does this mean? Well, it means that if you don't have an edge router, you won't be able to get online, which would be a real shame!