Visualizing Interdomain Routing with BGPlay

Abstract

In this paper we describe the architecture and the visual interface of BGPlay, an on-line service for the visualization of the behavior and of the instabilities of Internet routing at the autonomous system level. A graph showing only the connections among autonomous systems is not enough to convey all the information needed to fully understand routing and its changes. BGPlay uses specifically tailored techniques and algorithms to display the state of routing at specific points in time and to animate its changes. The system obtains routing data from well known on-line archives of routing information which are constantly kept up-to-date.