UAE-IX route server guide

Route Server Information

UAE-IX operates so-called route server systems (see RFC7947 for a detailed description) to facilitate the exchange of BGP announcements between peers at UAE-IX. Each peer needs only to set up a BGP connection to the route server in order to receive the BGP announcements of all other peers having a BGP connection with the route server.

Besides the conventional route servers, UAE-IX also operates a so-called Blackholing route server. This Blackholing route server only distributes BGP announcements marked as Blackholes which are typically used to fight massive DDoS attacks. Please also see our Blackholing Guide to learn more about this topic.

BGP Session Parameters

This section provides a brief overview of the BGP session parameters to connect to the route servers:

rs1	185.1.8.250 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1
rs2	185.1.8.251 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1
rsbh1	185.1.8.252 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fc:1
AS	61374
Recommended prefix limit rs1/rs2 (your side)	IPv4: 250,000 IPv6: 90,000
Recommended prefix limit rsbh (your side)	IPv4: 15,000 IPv6: 1,000

BGP Announcement Filtering

This section describes the filtering mechanism that can be used to filter BGP announcements.

Your Side

You can safely accept any BGP announcements received via all route servers as UAE-IX filters all incoming BGP announcements from all peers. The filtering mechanism is described in the section UAE-IX side.

If you additionally want to filter on your side based on AS-SETs, you can do so by using one or more of the following AS-SETs registered in the RIPE database:

RIR macro (AS-SET)	Purpose
AS-UAEIX	AS-SETs off all UAE-IX DXB customers (IPv4)
AS-UAEIX-V6	AS-SETs off all UAE-IX DXB customers (IPv6)
AS-UAEIX-CONNECTED	ASNs of all UAE-IX DXB customers

UAE-IX Side

At UAE-IX, the conventional and Blackholing route servers filter based on AS-path as well as IP prefixes. The BGP announcements that a route server receives from a peer are checked against the AS-SET the peer has provided. The AS-SET can be changed by contacting the UAE-IX customer service team.

How and what the route servers filters

The UAE-IX filters are updated every 6 hours. Don't forget to register your IP prefixes in the IRR database well in advance (at least 24h before announcing the first time).

Bogon and Martian filtering

Please make sure not to announce routes that

are > /24 (IPv4) and > /48 (IPv6) (RFC7454)
have a different BGP next-hop than the IP of your own router
are bogons/martians (private and reserved IP prefixes as defined by RFC1918, RFC2544, RFC3927, RFC5735, RFC5737, RFC6598 and RFC6890)
are a UAE-IX/DE-CIX/SEECIX peering LAN (please also do not announce any of our peering LANs in the DFZ!)
contain bogon ASNs in the BGP AS path (private and reserved ASN numbers as defined by RFC7607, RFC6793, RFC5398, RFC6996, RFC7300)
differ in the leftmost ASN in the AS path from your own ASN
have an AS path length > 32
are < /8 (IPv4) and < /16 (IPv6) (RFC7454)
are listed in the Team Cymru Fullbogon list
are marked as "never via route servers" in PeeringDB

We will drop these kinds of routes.

Check the status of your routes

You can check the status of your announced routes to us in our Looking Glass

- the reason why a route is filtered is also shown, as is a hint on how to fix the issue.

You can find more info on how to use the UAE-IX Looking Glass here.

IRR and RPKI validation

Any routes you announce will also be RPKI (RFC6811, RFC7115) validated and checked against Internet Routing Registry (IRR) data. The AS-SET you provide to us will be recursively resolved. Then filtering is executed as follows:

Origin ASN needs to be in customer cone (make sure that your AS-SET is well maintained and that all your downstreams are included)
Is the route a blackhole (RFC7999)?
- If no, the route undergoes strict RPKI validation filtering (both origin and maxLength):
  - if the result is RPKI Valid, the route is accepted (a missing route object will have no implication in this case)
  - if the result is RPKI Invalid, the route is rejected
  - if the result is RPKI NotFound, we check if the route is resolvable for its origin ASN (this will be the case if a proper route object exists) and it might get accepted or rejected depending on the result**
- If yes, the route undergoes loose RPKI validation filtering (origin only):
  - if the result is RPKI Valid, the route is accepted
  - if the result is RPKI Invalid, the route is rejected
  - if the result is RPKI NotFound, we check if the route is resolvable for its origin ASN (this will be the case if a proper route object exists) and it might get accepted or rejected depending on the result**

**Loose filtering on IRRDB route objects
We perform loose filtering on IRRDB route objects. For example: If you have a route object for 46.31.120.0/21 we will also accept e.g. 46.31.120.0/22 and other more specifics (up to /24 and up to /32 for blackholes). If this is not a desired behavior, we strongly encourage you to create a ROA and set the maxLength attribute accordingly. As RPKI validation is performed before the IRRDB route object check, it will render all undesired more specifics as RPKI Invalid, which will result in rejection of these. Please note that this method only works for non-blackholes as we perform loose RPKI validation on blackholes (i.e. ignore maxLength).

Route server setup

The route server setup at UAE-IX consists of three machines, two conventional route servers and a blackhole route server. The software utilized to provide the route server service is BIRD. Of the two conventional route servers only one is required. However, in order to use the route server service, every peer is requested to connect to both machines for redundancy purposes, so that if one machine is out of order (e.g. maintenance), the route server service can still be used.

If the route servers system receive a BGP announcement marked as a Blackhole, the NO-EXPORT community and the BLACKHOLE Community are added if these communities are not already present. This makes sure each BGP announcement marked as Blackhole can be easily filtered and does not spread widely in the Internet routing system.

Route server control

Action BGP Communities can be used to control various functions of the route server. With this communities, you can:

control the redistribution of advertised prefixes (on an ASN or geo location basis)
prepend your own ASN up to three times
trigger the calculation of a new alternate path (if available) for your advertised prefixes before you start commencing a maintenance

More information can be found here.

Route server prefix information

Informational BGP Communities are used to signal various information about redistributed prefixes. The UAE-IX route servers tag all prefixes with certain BGP Communities to indicate their origin. You can use this information to determine where a certain prefix has been injected into the UAE-IX switching platform. This gives you the possibility to filter routes learned from the route servers based on geographical location.

More information can be found here.

Route server session types

We offer two session types:

Standard/Public session (default)

We re-distribute all your announcements to other peers while honoring the BGP Communities which allow you to restrict your announcements
We advertise all announcements from other peers to you while honoring the BGP Communities which allow others peers to restrict their announcements

Monitor session

From an operational point of view, it is advised to set up BGP sessions to both route servers, even if you do not want to peer with (i.e. advertise prefixes to) the route servers. This helps UAE-IX staff to quickly monitor the availability of each peer.

Please note that you are required to set up BGP sessions with (but don't need to advertise prefixes to) the UAE-IX route servers to be able to claim credits for the GlobePEER service. Otherwise UAE-IX may not be able to comply with its SLA (please see UAE-IX GlobePEER Technical Service Description - III. IP LAYER CONFIGURATION (ISO/OSI LAYER 3) - Interface configuration).

If your decision not to establish BGP sessions with the route servers was made due to your peering policy, please contact us for establishing a monitoring only session. You don’t have to advertise any prefixes and you won’t receive any prefixes from us on that session.

Example configurations

The following section contains configurations examples for different router operating systems:

Cisco IOS

!
! Config example for Cisco IOS
! Peer and session templates, (S)AFI format and some basic filtering
! DE-CIX route servers rs1, rs2
! Your example ASN: 64500 (replace with your real ASN)
! Local preference route servers: 125
!
router bgp 64500
 bgp router-id 
 ! Requires all your sessions to reset to take effect (if not already enabled)
 bgp graceful-restart
 bgp graceful-restart restart-time 120
 bgp graceful-restart stalepath-time 360

 template peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_COMMON
  ! Optional: Keep a pre-ingress-route-map copy of the peer table (if you have the memory; useful for debugging)
  soft-reconfiguration inbound
  ! Strip private ASNs from BGP AS-PATH
  remove-private-as
  ! Allow sending of BGP standard communities to control your prefix advertisements
  ! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
  send-community
 exit-peer-policy
 !
 template peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  ! Apply ingress route map
  route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN in
  ! Apply egress IPv4 route map
  route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 out
  ! Please accept up to 250,000 IPv4 prefixes from us
  maximum-prefix 250000
  inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_COMMON 1
 exit-peer-policy
 !
 template peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  ! Apply ingress route map
  route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN in
  ! Apply egress IPv6 route map
  route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 out
 ! Please accept up to 70,000 IPv6 prefixes from us
  maximum-prefix 70000
  inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_COMMON 1
 exit-peer-policy
 !
 template peer-session PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
  ! ASN of DE-CIX route servers
  remote-as 61374
  ! The route servers are passive and waiting for you side to initiate the sessions
  transport connection-mode active
  ! Use BGP version 4 and skip version negotiation
  version 4
  ! Please do not use aggressive timers (60/180 should be fine) to reduce the risk of flapping sessions
  timers 60 180
 exit-peer-session
 !
 ! Our route servers are transparent: Ignore first AS in AS path not being your peer AS (i.e. 61374)
 no bgp enforce-first-as
 bgp log-neighbor-changes
 neighbor 185.1.8.250 inherit peer-session PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
 neighbor 185.1.8.250 description RS1.UAE-IX.NET
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1 inherit peer-session PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1 description RS1.UAE-IX.NET
 neighbor 185.1.8.251 inherit peer-session PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
 neighbor 185.1.8.251 description RS2.UAE-IX.NET
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1 inherit peer-session PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1 description RS2.UAE-IX.NET
 !
 address-family ipv4 unicast
  ! Some example IPv4 prefixes to announce
  network 192.0.2.0
  network 198.51.100.0
  network 203.0.113.0
  ! We do not support IPv6 over IPv4 transport
  no neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1 activate
  no neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1 activate
  neighbor 185.1.8.250 activate
  neighbor 185.1.8.250 inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  neighbor 185.1.8.251 activate
  neighbor 185.1.8.251 inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
 exit-address-family
 !
 address-family ipv6 unicast
  ! Some example IPv6 prefixes to announce
  network 2001:DB8:1234::/48
  network 2001:DB8:ABCD::/48
  network 2001:DB8:FFFF::/48
  neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1 activate
  neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1 inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1 activate
  neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1 inherit peer-policy PP_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
 exit-address-family
!
! Use new BGP community format
ip bgp-community new-format
!
! We will not advertise IPv4 prefixes less specific than /8 and more specific than /24
! Exception: Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set.
! Please allow up to /32 if you wish to receive all blackholed prefixes from the route servers
! Prefix list example: Allow every IPv4 prefix up to /32 from the route servers
ip prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_4 seq 5 permit 0.0.0.0/0 le 32
!
! We will not advertise IPv6 prefixes less specific than /19 and more specific than /48
! Exception: Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set.
! Please allow up to /128 if you wish to receive all blackholed prefixes from the route servers
! Prefix list example: Allow every IPv6 prefix up to /128 from the route servers
ipv6 prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_6 seq 5 permit ::/0 le 128
!
! We do not accept IPv4 prefixes less specific than /8 and more specific than /24
! Exception: Up to /32 allowed when Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
! Prefix list example: Make sure to only advertise your own IPv4 prefixes/those of your customers
ip prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 seq 5 permit 192.0.2.0/24
ip prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 seq 10 permit 203.0.113.0/24
!
! We do not accept IPv6 prefixes less specific than /19 and more specific than /48
! Exception: Up to /128 allowed when Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
! Prefix list example: Make sure to only advertise your own IPv6 prefixes/those of your customers
ipv6 prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 seq 5 permit 2001:DB8:1234::/48
ipv6 prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 seq 10 permit 2001:DB8:FFFF::/48
!
! Prefix list example: IPv4 prefixes to blackhole
ip prefix-list PL_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_4 seq 5 permit 198.51.100.0/24
!
! Prefix list example: IPv6 prefixes to blackhole
ipv6 prefix-list PL_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_6 seq 5 permit 2001:DB8:ABCD::/48
!
! Route-Map example: Set local-preference for route servers to 125
route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN permit 10
 match ip address prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_4
 match ipv6 address prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_6
 set local-preference 125
!
! Route-Map example:
! Use community 0:64501 for not allowing AS64501 to receive your prefixes
! Use community 61374:61374 for allowing the route servers to advertise your prefixes to all (other) peers
! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 permit 10
 match ip address prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4
 set community 61374:61374 0:64501 additive
!
! Route-Map example: Blackhole IPv4 prefixes
route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 permit 20
 match ip address prefix-list PL_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_4
 set community 61374:61374 additive
 set community 65535:666 additive
!
! Route-Map example:
! Use community 0:61374 in combination with 61374:64502 to allow no one except AS64502 to receive your IPv6 prefixes
route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 permit 10
 match ipv6 address prefix-list PL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6
 set community 0:61374 additive
 set community 61374:64502 additive
!
! Route-Map example: Blackhole IPv6 prefixes
route-map RM_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 permit 20
 match ipv6 address prefix-list PL_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_6
 set community 61374:61374 additive
 set community 65535:666 additive
!

Cisco IOS XR

!!
!! Config example for Cisco IOS XR
!! Session-, AF- and neighbor groups as well as some basic filtering
!! DE-CIX route servers rs1, rs2
!! Your example ASN: 64500 (replace with your real ASN)
!! Local preference route servers: 125
!!
!
!! We do not accept IPv4 prefixes less specific than /8 and more specific than /24
!! Exception: Up to /32 allowed when Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
!! Prefix set example: Make sure to only advertise your own IPv4 prefixes/those of your customers
prefix-set PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4
  192.0.2.0/24,
  203.0.113.0/24
end-set
!
!! We do not accept IPv6 prefixes less specific than /19 and more specific than /48
!! Exception: Up to /128 allowed when Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
!! Prefix set example: Make sure to only advertise your own IPv6 prefixes/those of your customers
prefix-set PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6
  2001:db8:1234::/48,
  2001:db8:ffff::/48
end-set
!
!! Prefix set example: IPv4 prefixes to blackhole
prefix-set PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_4
  198.51.100.0/24
end-set
!
!! Prefix set example: IPv6 prefixes to blackhole
prefix-set PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_6
  2001:db8:abcd::/48
end-set
!
!! Use this community for allowing the route servers to advertise your prefixes to all peers
!! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
!! Community set example: Community set for DE-CIX "advertise to all peers" community
community-set CS_DECIX_ADVERTISE_TO_ALL_PEERS
  61374:61374
end-set
!
community-set CS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE
  65535:666
end-set
!
!! We will not advertise IPv4 prefixes less specific than /8 and more specific than /24
!! Exception: Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
!! Please allow up to /32 if you wish to receive all blackholed prefixes from the route servers
!! Route Policy example: Allow every IPv4 prefix from the route servers and set local preference to 125
route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_4
  set local-preference 125
  pass
end-policy
!
!! We will not advertise IPv6 prefixes less specific than /19 and more specific than /48
!! Exception: Blackhole next-hop and/or BLACKHOLE Community is set
!! Please allow up to /128 if you wish to receive all blackholed prefixes from the route servers
!! Route Policy example: Allow every IPv6 prefix from the route servers and set local preference to 125
route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_6
  set local-preference 125
  pass
end-policy
!
!! Route Policy example:
!! Advertise IPv4 prefixes from prefix sets PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 and PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_4 (prefixes to blackhole)
!! Use community 0:64501 for not allowing AS64501 to receive your prefixes
!! Use community 61374:61374 for allowing the route servers to advertise your prefixes to all (other) peers
!! Set DE-CIX BLACKHOLE Community
!! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4
  if destination in PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 then
    set community CS_DECIX_ADVERTISE_TO_ALL_PEERS additive
    set community (0:64501) additive
    pass
  !! Blackhole IPv4 prefixes
  elseif destination in PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_4 then
    !! Allow all peers to receive your blackholed prefixes
    set community CS_DECIX_ADVERTISE_TO_ALL_PEERS additive
    !! Set BLACKHOLE Community
    set community CS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE additive
    pass
  else
    drop
  endif
end-policy
!
!! Route Policy example:
!! Advertise IPv6 prefixes from prefix sets PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 and PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_6 (prefixes to blackhole)
!! Use community 0:61374 in combination with 61374:64502 to allow no one except AS64502 to receive your IPv6 prefixes
!! Set DE-CIX BLACKHOLE Community
route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6
  if destination in PS_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 then
    set community (0:61374) additive
    set community (61374:64502) additive
    pass
  !! Blackhole IPv6 prefixes
  elseif destination in PS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE_OUT_6 then
    !! Allow all peers to receive your blackholed prefixes
    set community CS_DECIX_ADVERTISE_TO_ALL_PEERS additive
    !! Set BLACKHOLE Community
    set community CS_DECIX_BLACKHOLE additive
    pass
  else
    drop
  endif
end-policy
!
router bgp 64500
 bgp router-id 
 bgp graceful-restart
 address-family ipv4 unicast
  !! Some example IPv4 prefixes to announce
  network 192.0.2.0/24
  network 198.51.100.0/24
  network 203.0.113.0/24
 !
 address-family ipv6 unicast
  !! Some example IPv6 prefixes to announce
  network 2001:db8:1234::/48
  network 2001:db8:abcd::/48
  network 2001:db8:ffff::/48
 !
 af-group AG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4 address-family ipv4 unicast
  !! Allow sending of BGP standard communities to control your prefix advertisements
  !! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
  send-community-ebgp
  !! Inbound IPv4 policy
  route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_4 in
  !! Outbound IPv4 policy
  route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_4 out
  !! Please accept up to 250,000 IPv4 prefixes from us
  maximum-prefix 250000 75
  !! Strip private ASNs from BGP AS-PATH
  remove-private-AS
  !! Optional: Keep a pre-ingress-route-map copy of the peer table even if route refresh is supported (if you have the memory; useful for debugging)
  soft-reconfiguration inbound always
 !
 af-group AG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6 address-family ipv6 unicast
  !! Allow sending of BGP standard communities to control your prefix advertisements
  !! For all available communities, please see "Action BGP Communities"
  send-community-ebgp
  !! Inbound IPv6 policy
  route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_IN_6 in
  !! Outbound IPv6 policy
  route-policy RPL_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_OUT_6 out
  !! Please accept up to 70,000 IPv6 prefixes from us
  maximum-prefix 70000 75
  !! Strip private ASNs from BGP AS-PATH
  remove-private-AS
  !! Optional: Keep a pre-ingress-route-map copy of the peer table even if route refresh is supported (if you have the memory; useful for debugging)
  soft-reconfiguration inbound always
 !
 session-group SG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
  !! ASN of DE-CIX route servers
  remote-as 61374
  !! Please do not use aggressive timers (60/180 should be fine) to reduce the risk of flapping sessions
  timers 60 180
  !! Our route servers are transparent: Ignore first AS in AS path not being your peer AS (i.e. 61374)
  enforce-first-as disable
  !! Allow BGP graceful restart
  graceful-restart
  !! The route servers are passive and waiting for you side to initiate the sessions
  session-open-mode active-only
 !
 neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  use session-group SG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
  address-family ipv4 unicast
   use af-group AG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  !
 !
 neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  use session-group SG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS
  address-family ipv6 unicast
   use af-group AG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  !
 !
 neighbor 185.1.8.250
  use neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  description RS1.UAE-IX.NET
 !
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fa:1
  use neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  description RS1.UAE-IX.NET
 !
 neighbor 185.1.8.251
  use neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_4
  description RS2.UAE-IX.NET
 !
 neighbor 2001:7f8:73::efbe:fb:1
  use neighbor-group NG_DECIX_ROUTE_SERVERS_6
  description RS2.UAE-IX.NET
 !
!
end