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I've just recently learned that BGP runs at the application layer (with some criticism towards that), and on Autonomous Systems only (with strict configuration and rules), which apparently according to some searching around almost always means ISP routers.

To my understanding of what constitutes a router and packet forwarding, that basically excludes SOHO routers from running BGP. Is that conclusion correct? And do SOHO routers just forward any packets going out of the network immediately to the ISP in that case?

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To my understanding of what constitutes a router and packet forwarding, that basically excludes SOHO routers from running BGP. Is that conclusion correct?

Not really. SOHO routers can run BGP assuming:

  • They have a bgp implementation (such as quagga-bgp for OpenWRT)
  • They have no delusions of handling a lot of routes via BGP

And do SOHO routers just forward any packets going out of the network immediately to the ISP in that case?

SOHO routers traditionally have static default routes out to an ISP next-hop (i.e. an ISP router) via your ISP CPE

A SOHO router running BGP does whatever you've configured bgp to do; most likely it's also forwarding to an ISP next-hop, just with dynamic path selection possibilities and next-hop up/down detection via bgp keepalives.

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