Media Types

CIX-NoVA offers services on the following physical media:

  • 10G-LR over single-mode fiber
  • 100G-LR1 over single-mode fiber
  • 100G-LR4 over single-mode fiber
  • 400G-LR4 or 400G-FR4 over single-mode fiber


Route Servers

By announcing their routes to the route servers, members can begin immediately exchanging traffic with other route server participants without configuring individual BGP sessions.

Members who wish to connect to the route servers should disable enforce-first-as on the route server BGP sessions.

The route servers are:

IPv4IPv6ASNPlatform
149.112.69.42001:504:40:69::1:463221BIRD
149.112.69.52001:504:40:69::1:563221BIRD

Route Server Filtering

The route servers perform RPKI validation and it is recommended (but not required) that members sign their routes. Routes that fail RPKI validation are dropped; valid and unknown routes are accepted.

Additionally, routes are filtered based on the IRR object provided during onboarding. Routes that are not a part of the member’s AS-SET will be dropped.

The minimum accepted prefix length for IPv4 routes is /24 and for IPv6, /48.

Route Distribution Communities

By default, all routes advertised by members to the route server that pass the filtering criteria above are sent to all other members. Members who wish to control distribution of their routes may do so using the BGP communities below.

In order to control distribution of routes to members with 4-byte ASNs, you must use large communities.

Use either standard (16-bit) or large (32-bit) communities exclusively; do not mix the two.


For standard communities:

DescriptionCommunity
Prevent announcement of a route to a specific peer0:peer-asn
Announce a route to a specific peer63221:peer-asn
Prevent announcement of a route to all peers0:63221
Announce a route to all peers63221:63221


For example, a route with the standard communities 0:63221, 63221:64501, and 63221:64502 would be sent only to route server peers with ASNs 64501 or 64502.


For large communities:

DescriptionCommunity
Prevent announcement of a route to a specific peer63221:0:peer-asn
Announce a route to a specific peer63221:1:peer-asn
Prevent announcement of a route to all peers63221:0:0
Announce a route to all peers63221:1:0


For example, a route with the large communities 63221:0:0, 63221:1:64501, and 63221:1:64502 would be sent only to route server peers with ASNs 64501 or 64502.

BGP Add-Path

We’ve recently enabled BGP Add-Path on our Route Server infrastructure. This enhancement allows the route servers to advertise multiple paths for the same prefix, giving you more routing options and improved path diversity for better traffic engineering and redundancy.

Add-Path is defined in RFC 7911 – Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP.

To use this capability:

If you’d like to take advantage of Add-Path, you’ll need to enable the capability on your side and restart your BGP session with the route servers.

Configuration guides by vendor:

Important: When enabling Add-Path, pay close attention to your max-prefix limits. Since you may receive additional paths, you should review and increase your max-prefix settings if needed to avoid session flaps.


MAC Filtering

CIX-NoVA implements MAC filtering using layer 2 access control lists to protect the infrastructure against loops. Members who intend to swap routers or otherwise change their MAC address should coordinate this change in advance with the CIX-NoVA NOC. In the event of an after-hours emergency necessitating a MAC change, members should contact the CIX-NoVA NOC for assistance.


Permitted Traffic

CIX-NoVA will accept and forward from member ports traffic with Ethertypes of:

  • 0x0800 IPv4
  • 0x86dd IPv6
  • 0x0806 ARP


Topology