A comparative study on IP prefixes and their origin ases in BGP and the IRR

Abstract

The IRR is a set of globally distributed databases with which ASes can register their routing and address-related information. It is often believed that the quality of the IRR data is not reliable since there are few economic incentives for the ASes to register and update their routing information timely. To validate these negative beliefs, we carry out a comprehensive analysis of (IP prefix, its origin AS) pairs in BGP against the corresponding information registered with the IRR, and vice versa. Considering the BGP and IRR practices, we propose a methodology to match the (IP prefix, origin AS) pairs between the IRR and BGP. We observe that the practice of registering IP prefi xes and origin ASes with the IRR is prevalent. However, the quality of the IRR data can vary substantially depending on routing registries, regional Internet registries (to which ASes belong), and AS types. We argue that the IRR can help improve the security level of BGP routing by making BGP routers selectively rely on the corresponding IRR data considering these observations.