RS-API - Accept announcments as legit as possible

While accepting an announcement is pretty simple, checking if it is a legit one is way more difficult. You have to look up the Internet Routing Registry (IRR) to check if the route is contained in the AS-SET of the customer, check that the amount of routes announced is coherent (especially if the AS-SET contain another AS-SET that import the whole DFZ), and last but not least, check if the customer wants to be re-announced through the route server (RS).

Sounds easy right? Well, while there is plenty of tools that do part of the jobs you still have work to do:

• PeeringDB is the source of trust, you should have all the information you need but only if it is up-to-date and accurate, nothing stops you from having 1M routes as max-pref.
• The awesome bgpq4 tool let you generate filters from the IRR, but you have no clue if the AS-cone is legit or not. You can add AS-OPENTRANSIT to your AS-SET, give it to the new IXP you want to connect to, and voilà.

It is something you can do manually, however each time your customers update their networks, you also need to update your filters. If it seems feasible for a few customers, it definitely does not scale.

This is why we have designed RS-API, a proxy around the tools that are already available. Leveraging real life data from BGP.tools and bgproutes.io, we are able to confront the PeeringDB data to the reality. Allowing us to have up to date and accurate filters.