Summary: Topology Inference from BGP Routing Dynamics
David G. Andersen, Nick Feamster, Steve Bauer, Hari Balakrishnan
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
fdga, feamster, bauer, harig@lcs.mit.edu
Abstract--- This paper describes a method of inferring logical relation­
ships between network prefixes within an Autonomous System (AS) using
only passive monitoring of BGP messages. By clustering these prefixes
based upon similarities between their update times, we create a hierarchy
linking the prefixes within the larger AS. We can frequently identify groups
of prefixes routed to the same ISP Point of Presence (PoP), despite the lack
of identifying information in the BGP messages. Similarly, we observe dis­
parate prefixes under common organizational control, or with long shared
network paths. In addition to discovering interesting network characteris­
tics, our passive method facilitates topology discovery by potentially reduc­
ing the number of active probes required in traditional traceroute­based
Internet mapping mechanisms.
I. INTRODUCTION
Topological information about the Internet is useful for var­
ious reasons, including troubleshooting operational problems,
and facilitating more realistic simulation and evaluation of net­

Source: Andersen, Dave - School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Feamster, Nick - College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems Group

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences