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Getting Started

If you'd like to participate in the DPE then you'll need:

  • a router that supports BGP-4 - check with your supplier
  • a block of IP addresses to advertise - we can't supply these addresses. You'll either have them already or need to get a block from APNIC or your ISP.
  • an Autonomous System (AS) number - you'll either already have one assigned by one of the Regional Internet Registries such as APNIC or you'll need to get one from APNIC.
  • to complete the DPE Application Form

Once you've completed the form we'll send you some details on your 3CIX IP address and a sample config for a Unix based router using Zebra or Quagga on a Unix based router. If you are using If you are a Cisco router this config will work with minor changess. If you're using another type of router you'll need to do a little more work.

Checking the running system

You can check your details in the route servers via a web based interface called a looking glass. The DPE Looking Glass allows you to check whether your BGP peering sessions with our route servers are running correctly.

If you are an DPE peer you should check that you are peering with both route servers and announcing the same number of prefixes on each one - use the show ip bgp summary option and look for the DPE IP address you were assigned in the output.

  • If the right hand column shows a number greater than zero and it matches your expectations - then things are probably working well. You can check the actual routes being announced on your behalf on the Looking Glass if you select the show ip bgp option on the web page, and for example, type neighbor 192.203.154.4 routes (note the American spelling) in the Argument box and Execute. The Next Hop on the output should point to that router!
  • If your session is marked as Active in the right hand column then the setup on your router almost certainly needs some attention - Active means that our route server is waiting for a connection from your router and for some reason it's not happening!
  • If the right hand column shows 0 (zero) then your BGP session is up but the route server is not advertising any routes for you. The likely causes of this are:
    a) your BGP session is not advertising any routes to the route server
    b) your BGP session is advertising routes to the route server but the announcements are being filtered out.

If things aren't working as you'd like you can debug this using the Looking Glass. Let's use the CityLink office peering session as an example - yes, we eat our own dog food. Our IP address on the DPE is 192.203.154.4 so we'll use that to check details of CityLink's own routing announcements to the route servers. Select the show ip bgp option on the web page, type neighbor 192.203.154.4 received-routes (note the American spelling) in the Argument box and Execute. This will show you something like this: 

Executing command = show ip bgp n 192.203.154.4 received-routes

BGP table version is 0, local router ID is 192.203.154.1
Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, * valid, > best, i - internal
Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete

   Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 202.7.4.0        192.203.154.4            0             0 23754 i
*> 203.118.144.80/28
                    192.203.154.4                          0 23754 i

Total number of prefixes 2

If you do this using the DPE IP address we assigned to you then this will show a list of prefixes you are actually sending to the route servers. If the list is empty then your BGP process is not announcing prefixes to us. If this list matches what you're sending then it looks the filter lists don't match your announcements and you'll need to contact us to get that fixed.

If things are working correctly then the routes and received-routes outputs should match.