Building a Resilient Network: Our Journey with AS210622
When we decided to operate our own autonomous system, we knew it wouldn't be easy. But owning your network gives you a level of control that's impossible to achieve any other way.
Why We Got Our Own ASN
Most hosting companies rely entirely on upstream providers for their connectivity. While that works for many use cases, we wanted more control over:
- Routing decisions — We can optimize traffic paths for our customers
- Redundancy — Multiple upstreams and IX connections mean no single point of failure
- Peering — Direct connections to other networks reduce latency and cost
- IP space — Our own PI space means we're not dependent on any single provider
Our Transit Stack
We carefully selected our transit providers to ensure diverse paths and optimal coverage:
Transit Providers:
├── Cogent (AS174) — Tier 1 global coverage
├── Hurricane Electric (AS6939) — Excellent IPv6 and peering reach
└── NTT (AS2914) — Strong European backbone
IXP Connectivity
Internet Exchange Points are where the magic happens. By peering directly with other networks at IXPs, we can deliver traffic more efficiently:
- InterLAN (Bucharest) — Our home exchange, 100G connection
- DE-CIX (Frankfurt) — The largest IX in Europe
- AMS-IX (Amsterdam) — Global peering hub
BGP Configuration Best Practices
Here are some key practices we follow:
RPKI Validation
We validate all routes using RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure). This prevents route hijacking and ensures the integrity of our routing table.
Prefix Filtering
We maintain strict prefix filters based on IRR data. Every prefix we accept is verified against RIPE's IRR database.
Graceful Restart
All our BGP sessions are configured with graceful restart to minimize the impact of router maintenance.
Monitoring
We monitor our network using a combination of:
- Prometheus + Grafana for metrics
- sFlow for traffic analysis
- RIPE Atlas for external measurement
- Custom BGP monitors for route leak detection
Lessons Learned
- Start simple — Don't try to peer with everyone on day one
- Document everything — Your future self will thank you
- Monitor relentlessly — You can't fix what you can't see
- Build relationships — The networking community is small and collaborative
- Automate — Manual BGP configuration doesn't scale
What's Next
We're continuing to expand our network presence and are actively looking for peering partners. If you're interested in peering with AS210622, check out our network page or reach out at peering@kicked.ro.