Internet Backbone and Route Servers

Autonomous Systems (AS) are large networks usually belongs to different Internet Service Providers (ISP). AS’s are connected to each other through Internet Exchange Points (IX or IXP) which reside at virtual edges of Autonomous Systems. BGP routing protocol, handles the communication among these different AS’s creating the backbone of the internet.

Accordingly at an IXP, many ISPs are connected to each other by external BGP peering. Normally these external BGP connections are done by full mesh method. This creates a scaling problem. Route Server mechanism is one heavily adapted method to resolve this problem. Each ISP's BGP router only peers to Route Server. Route Server serves as BGP information exchange to other BGP routers. By applying this method, numbers of BGP connections is can be reduced [1].

Some of the ISP’s allow restricted public access to their route servers using telnet. Most often they allow the remote users to issue commands such as

• ping
• traceroute
• show ip bgp

without login into the router. These are very useful for taking various measurements of latency, packet failure ratios, etc of the internet. For a list of such route severs with public access capabilities are listed below [2].

Hostname	Location	Provider	IP Address to telnet	AS	Peers	Type
route-server.twtelecom.net	Littleton, CO 80124, US	Time Warner Telecom	66.162.47.58	4323	2059	Cisco 7200 12.1(2)T
route-server.eu.gblx.net	Phoenix, AZ 85044, US	Global Crossing - Europe	67.17.81.187	3549	2035	Cisco
route-server.gblx.net	Phoenix, AZ 85044, US	Global Crossing	67.17.81.28	3549	2035	Cisco
route-server.ip.tiscali.net	Cagliari, 14 -, Italy	Tiscali	213.200.64.94	3257	806	Cisco
route-server.gt.ca	Montreal QC H3E 3B3 Canada	GT Group Telecom	216.18.63.214	6539	295	Cisco
route-server-east.gt.ca	Montreal QC H3E 3B3 Canada	GT Group Telecom	216.18.63.214	6539	295	Cisco
route-server-west.gt.ca	Montreal QC H3E 3B3, Canada	GT Group Telecom	66.59.190.81	6539	295	Cisco
route-views.optus.net.au	Sydney, Australia	Optus Australia	203.202.125.6	7474	293	Cisco
route-views.on.bb.telus.com	Burnaby, BC v5h 3z7, Canada	Telus - Eastern Canada	154.11.63.86	852	179	Cisco
route-views.ab.bb.telus.com	Burnaby, BC v5h 3z7, Canada	Telus - Western Canada	154.11.98.18	852	179	Cisco
route-server.east.allstream.com	Toronto, ON m5v 3g2, Canada	Allstream - East	216.191.14.250	15290	146	Cisco
route-server.west.allstream.com	Toronto, ON m5v 3g2, Canada	Allstream - West	209.82.88.118	15290	146	Cisco
route-server.central.allstream.com	Toronto, ON m5v 3g2, Canada	Allstream - Central	216.191.167.134	15290	146	Cisco
public-route-server.is.co.za	Edenvale, South Africa	Internet Solution	196.4.160.227	3741	85	Cisco
route-server.videotron.net	Montreal, QC H3C4M8, Canada	VIDEOTRON LTEE / QMI	216.113.14.121	5769	59
route-server.eastlink.ca	Bedford, NS, Canada	Eastlink	24.137.100.8 2610:170:ffff::8	11260	21	Cisco
route-server.belwue.de	Stuttgart, Germany	BelWue	193.196.190.135 129.143.103.78	553	20	Cisco
route-server.cerf.net	Alpharetta, GA 30005, US	CERFnet	12.129.193.235	17233	5	Cisco 7200 12.0(22)S2e

For information on router locations and other information visit here.

Some Important Links to Visit

• Provider and Router type information of many route servers: http://www.bgp4.net/wiki/doku.php?id=tools:ipv4_route_servers
• Location and more Information of web servers and route servers: http://cqcounter.com/whois/?query=twtelecom.net&map=0#map_geo_location
• Cisco Router Commands in summary: http://www.tomax7.com/mcse/cisco_routerconfig.htm
• More about ping and traceroute commands: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1831/products_tech_note09186a00800a6057.shtml

References

[1] “Route Server” Available at: http://www.zebra.org/zebra/Route-Server.html

[2] “Route Servers”, Available at: http://www.lerfjhax.com/route_servers

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