22–23 Mar 2023
Indaba Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre
Africa/Johannesburg timezone

RPKI Time-of-Flight: Tracking Delays in the Management, Control, and Data Planes

22 Mar 2023, 10:30
40m
Injabulo (Indaba Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre)

Injabulo

Indaba Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre

William Nicol Drive, Pieter Wenning Road Johannesburg, Fourways, Sandton, 2191
Plenary Session

Speaker

Amreesh Phokeer (Internet Society)

Description

As RPKI is becoming part of ISPs’ daily operations and Route Origin Validation is getting widely deployed, one wonders how long it takes for the effect of RPKI changes to appear in the data plane. Does an operator that adds, fixes, or removes a Route Origin Autho- rization (ROA) have time to brew coffee or rather enjoy a long meal before the Internet routing infrastructure integrates the new information and the operator can assess the changes and resume work? The chain of ROA publication, from creation at Certification Authorities all the way to the routers and the effect on the data plane, involves a large number of players and is not instantaneous and is often dominated by ad hoc administrative decisions. This is the first comprehensive study to measure the entire ecosystem of ROA manipulation by all five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), propagation on the management plane to Relying Parties (RPs) and to routers; measure the effect on BGP as seen by global control plane monitors; and finally measure the effects on data plane latency and reachability. We found that RIRs usually publish new RPKI information within five minutes, except APNIC which averages ten minutes slower. We observe significant disparities in ISPs reaction time to new RPKI information, ranging from a few minutes to one hour. The delay for ROA deletion is significantly longer than for ROA creation as RPs and BGP strive to maintain reachability. Incidentally we found and reported significant issues in the management plane of two RIRs and a Tier1 network.

Presentation materials