Improving RIPE Atlas Coverage - Which Networks Are Missing?
• 11 min read
In this article we compare RIPE Atlas deployment against user population estimates provided by APNIC to see which eyeball networks are missing out on RIPE Atlas probes.
Emile Aben
Based in Amsterdam, NL
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About the author
Based in Amsterdam, NL
I'm a system architect/research coordinator at the RIPE NCC, where I work in the science group. I'm a chemist by training, but have been working since 1998 on Internet related things, as a sysadmin, security consultant, web developer and researcher. I am interested in technology changes (like IPv6 deployment), Internet measurement, data analysis, data visualisation, sustainability and security. I'd like to bring research and operations closer together, ie. do research that is operationally relevant. When I'm not working I like to make music (electric guitar, bass and drums), do sports (swimming, (inline) skating, bouldering, soccer), and try to be a good parent.
Published tags
Measuring Countries and IXPs in the SEE Region
• 13 min read
We looked at Internet measurements for the South East Europe (SEE) region in order to share these with attendees at the SEE 4 Meeting that took place from 21-22 April 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia. This is the long version of the lightning talk Vesna Manojlovic gave at SEE 4.
Measuring Countries and IXPs with RIPE Atlas
• 12 min read
We've been working with various Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) over the last few months to see how RIPE Atlas active measurements can provide insight into how they are keeping local traffic local. This could help improve performance and efficiency for IXPs and their members. To explore this, we've…
#facebookdown? What Internet Measurement Data Shows
• 6 min read
While at this point it is still unclear what exactly happened at Facebook this morning (27 January), we collect data on the Internet control plane (BGP) and data plane that allows us to provide some insight into what happened with Facebook's connectivity to the rest of the Internet.
Visualising IPv4 and IPv6 Tweets
• 3 min read
This time we explored Twitter feed visualisation with CartoDB, a map visualisation tool.
Distribution of RIPE Atlas Probes
• 3 min read
As the RIPE Atlas network continues to grow, it's useful for ambassadors and potential probes hosts to easily see where we already have probes deployed and where we'd like more probes installed. We created a few useful maps to help with this.
Propagation of Longer-than-/24 IPv4 Prefixes
• 8 min read
Under ARIN's Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM) Section 4.10, the IPv4 address block 23.128/10 is reserved for allocations and assignments dedicated to facilitate IPv6 deployment. The maximum allocation size is a /24; the minimum allocation size is a /28. There has been much discussion on the NAN…
Time Warner Cable Outage
• 8 min read
The Time Warner Cable network suffered an outage on 27 August 2014 between approximately 9:40 and 10:55 UTC. We looked at some interesting details of this outage using RIS and RIPE Atlas.
512K-mageddon?
• 6 min read
A week after the 512K-routes problem started making waves, we took a look at the global effects to see what impact it had. Spoiler: Not much.
CAPIF 2: The Road to Interconnection
• 11 min read
From 19-20 September, network operators, local IXPs, peering coordinators, Internet researchers and government officials will meet at CAPIF 2 to build a more diverse interconnection environment in Central Asia, Iran, and beyond. To prepare, we’ve been examining changes in local interconnection and …
Unlocking the Power of Internet Alarms Correlation and Aggregated Reports
• 6 min read
In this article, Mohamed presents his Google Summer of Code project that correlates and aggregates alarm data to detect real-world Internet outages. His project integrates data from IHR, GRIP, and IODA, visualising BGP hijacking, delays, and outages for improved real-time monitoring.
Intercept and Inject: DNS Response Manipulation in the Wild
• 6 min read
In November 2021, Internet users from Mexico lost access to whatsapp.net and facebook.com. By the time the event was reported, the underlying problem had already gone unnoticed for quite some time. Here, we present key takeaways from our analysis of the event - carried out with RIPE Atlas - and we …
Plug and Plot: Reusable Visualisations for AS-Hegemony Data
• 11 min read
This article presents a set of open-source tools - “reusable visualisations” - that extend the AS hegemony visualisations provided by the Internet Health Report. Users can directly use the online tools or embed the IHR data on their own posts, webpages, or Observable HQ notebooks.
240/4 As Seen by RIPE Atlas
• 11 min read
In this article we use data from RIPE Atlas probes to investigate the usage of 240/4, a block of IPv4 addresses 'reserved for future use', formally known as Class E in the wild.
Spring and Summer Events Season 2022
• 6 min read
The events season has started! This article is an invitation to people from across many communities, whatever your role or level of experience, to come and participate in workshops, conferences, camps, lectures, festivals, and more.
Detecting DNS Root Manipulation
• 11 min read
In 2021, reports emerged that hosts in Mexico were unable to reach whatsapp.net. It was determined that middleboxes were to blame, intercepting the queries to the root instance hosted in China and sending a bogus reply. This article investigates the prevalence of middleboxes using RIPE Atlas probes.
NOGs on NOGs
• 8 min read
The RIPE NCC recently held two Open House events to bring together people who help organise NOGs, which bring together people who help operate the Internet in particular parts the world.
Facebook Down and Out in BGPlay
• 4 min read
Following the Facebook outage that took place on 4 October, we saw people looking to BGPlay to get a better view of what went on. Here's a look at what the RIPEstat visualisation has to show us about the event in question.
Looking Inside Outages with RIPE Atlas
• 7 min read
RIPE Atlas probes actively measure Internet connectivity through a variety of measurement types. In this article, we take a closer look at what probes can tell us about outages.
“One may assume that, if some people delayed the changes, other people rushed in to adapt the networks to the increased load? Both behaviour may explain why the change rate is more or less the same?”
I think it would be interesting to dig into this data deeper indeed. I looked at splitting this out per country a bit, but could try figure out if there are trends in the sets of ASNs in this timeseries. Would you be willing to look at this? My colleague Vesna is doing a virtual hackathon around Internet and Corona ( https://labs.ripe.net/Members/becha/hackathons-in-the-time-of-corona ), I'd love it if we could collaborate around this. Let me or Vesna know, or hop on to the conf calls, Mon 2pm UTC ( 3pm Paris timezone :) )
“Ghost routes: https://www.sixxs.net/tools/grh/what/”
I've added a reference to the different names 'stuck routes' and 'ghost routes' for this phenomenon at the beginning of the post. Thanks for the pointer!
“Interested in repeating this analysis for 2018 world cup?”
Hi Dan, we have no plans of repeating this analysis this time. This type of signal is still there, see for instance https://twitter.com/search?q=%40ohohlfeld%20%23worldcup&src=typd for a couple of graphs that show the impact in various places.
“@emileaben Rather than standardizing human-readable output format, why not emitting a standard structured format, separating the network part (traceroute) and the visualisation part (a tool using the structured output format). Such a format already exists, in RFC 5388. I let you do the same in JSON :-)”
thanks for the interest in the topic Stephane. You hit the nail on the head, the main idea was to standardise a structured format for traceroute. I notice a lack of enthusiasm for RFC5388, probably due to it's verbosity. quick test shows that gzip compression of RFC5388-style results would need 3x more storage relative to plain-text traceroute results. But the RFC is likely very useful to see if we cover all bases in a slimmer structured output format.
One other activity that may be worth mentioning here: We organised a get-together for traceroute implementers. As many traceroute implementations do things slightly different, a bit more coordination can help in making things more consistent, for instance in output formats.
“I'm trying to work with the ixp-jedi tool. In this step: ## measure.py This script runs one-off measurements for the probes specified in _probeset.json_ and stores their results in _measurementset.json_ This uses the RIPE Atlas measurement API for measurement creation, And it needs a valid measurement creation API key in ~ / .atlas / auth When trying to execute the script ./measure.py I get the following and I do not know how to solve it. Authentication file /root/.atlas/auth not found Please, I need your help.”
hi, thanks for trying to use the tool. i hope the docs on github are clear enough: https://github.com/emileaben/ixp-country-jedi/#measurepy --- This script runs one-off measurements for the probes specified in probeset.json and stores their results in measurementset.json This uses the RIPE Atlas measurement API for measurement creation, and it needs a valid measurement creation API key in ~/.atlas/auth . For more information on RIPE Atlas API keys see https://atlas.ripe.net/docs/keys/ --- if not let me know how to improve that. if you are interested in country-level monthy runs. these are available at: http://sg-pub.ripe.net/emile/ixp-country-jedi/history/
“Hi, Is there a way to download multiple days dataset without having to do them individually? Also do you have any API's which will permit me to download the datasets using wget?”
Hi Meenakshi, I think you'll have to download the files individually. I think, if your RIPE Access account doesn't have 2 factor authentication, you can use wget to download the files with the --user and --password options.
While we were busy pushing this post out, it looks like the Gambian Internet was restored, roughly around 12h UTC on 2 December. RIPE Atlas probes came online again, and we see 6 out of 7 ASNs in RIS data again.
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