On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 12:28 PM, Lincoln Reid <lincoln@acsdata.co.nz> wrote:

Hi All,

Currently ( all? ) the NZIX route servers insert the exchange ASN into
routes that are advertised to the route servers.

That is correct.

��

��The exchanges that we peer with overseas such as Any2 in LA, Equinix

Sydney and NSW-IX plus the new AKL-IX exchange do not insert the
exchange ASN into advertisements, so all else being equal the paths from
those exchanges are shorter than routes from APE and WIX by one AS hop.

Agreed.��

There are other NZ networks like us that peer at APE and/or WIX and also
peer at overseas exchanges and to have optimal traffic flows with them,
we put in one off hacks per network. The least ugly ways of doing this
for us work fine but create per peer config that must be maintained.
Ideally we can put bilateral peering up at APE and WIX so that the extra
AS hop goes away but sometimes bilateral peering is impractical due to
the other networks peering policy.

Again agreed.��

I can't think of a reason why putting the exchange ASN in the path helps
anyone. Is this just a hangover from the old days? Or is there some
legitimate reason that it should be like this?

We can remove it on a per peer basis or across the whole IX, so why haven��t we?

It��s a combination of things.

When the exchanges were built I don't believe there was the appropriate knob to turn it off.��

We had input some time ago [before the others IX��s lit up] that some IX��participants considered it a useful thing as it helped to more easily identify��where routes were learnt e.g.we were��told��people wanted it, ��so we didn��t��change it��

If we made a blanket change now to remove it there would be an effect on��IX��traffic so we��d certainly want to let people know that was going to happen��and when.

It's a simple change to the scripting to��enable it across the whole��exchange but given there was perceived to be some value attached by some participants to having it we're more in��favour of turning it on by��request. ��That obviously will require a little more work on our behalf, indications here of interest would help with that.��Input welcomed.

Enjoy your weekends

cheers, Sid