Overview
The Route Servers are available to all participants. Peering with the Route Servers is optional. Some participants may prefer to establish directing BGP peering relationships.
- Router Server ASN: 64234
- Route Server 1 (RS1):
- IPv4 206.41.104.253
- IPv6 2001:504:39::253
- Route Server 2 (RS2):
- IPv4 206.41.104.254
- IPv6 2001:504:39::254
- IPv4 maximum prefixes: 200,000
- IPv6 maximum prefixes: 100,000
BGP sessions are pre-configured for all VANIX participants on the VANIX route servers. Sessions are configured to be passive.
The route servers do not add the VANIX AS into the AS path. Participants using Cisco routers might need to add “no bgp enforce-first-as” to their BGP neighbor configuration, or the router will discard all VANIX routes as the AS paths do not begin with the VANIX AS.
VANIX’s route servers are based on the ARouteServer project.
BGP Communities
VANIX supports a comprehensive set of BGP communities for configuration of your routing policy.
VANIX supports new large communities in addition to standard communities. Not all router implementations support large communities, so if you are unsure which type to use, go with standard communities.
| Feature | Standard Community | Large Community |
| Prepend AS once to specific participant | 1:peer_as | 64234:101:peer_as |
| Prepend AS twice to specific participant | 2:peer_as | 64234:102:peer_as |
| Prepend AS three times to specific participant | 3:peer_as | 64234:103:peer_as |
| Don’t advertise to specific participant | 0:peer_as | 64234:0:peer_as |
| Do not advertise to any participants | 64234:65535 | 64234:0:0 |
| Announce to specific participant | 64234:peer_as | 64234:1:peer_as |
| Prepend AS once to all participants | 64234:65501 | 64234:2:1 |
| Prepend AS twice to all participants | 64234:65502 | 64234:2:2 |
| Prepend AS three times to all participants | 64234:65503 | 64234:2:3 |
By default, if no community is set, prefixes are advertised to all participants.
Route Validation
Prefixes are validated in the following sequence:
- RPKI ROA – Prefixes with a valid ROA are accepted. Prefixes with an invalid ROA are discarded. Prefixes without a ROA are passed to the next step.
- Route Object – Prefixes with a corresponding route object in a public Internet Routing Registry (IRR) are accepted. VANIX uses the AS Set specified in the PeeringDB “IRR Record” field.
- Origin AS – Prefixes that match a WHOIS record and the Origin AS AS number, are accepted.
- Everything else is discarded.
You should register any prefixes that you send to the route servers in a public Internet Routing Registry (IRR) database. For most VANIX participants, this means using the ARIN IRR or RADB. Even if VANIX accepts your prefixes based on a RPKI or OriginAS match, validation of prefixes by IRR is widespread on the Internet.
VANIX supports RADB, BELL, CANARIE, ARIN, ALTDB, NTTCOM, LEVEL3, ROGERS, SAVVIS, and RIPE IRRs.
IRR Explorer is a useful tool to check to how your current prefixes in BGP compare to route objects from your AS Set.