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Asked: 2013-10-30 08:17:45 +0800 CST

Why an anycast server is so far away / slow? How does BGP anycast work?

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I've tried doing a couple of traceroute tests to the DNS servers of Rage4, which are anycasted from many parts of the world (supposedly, from 30 different locations).

What I've experienced is that very often the traceroute shows that the server being contacted is very far away from the querying location, even though a traceroute from another location would show a server that should have been quite close.

For example, from France, we're going to an Indian server:

traceroute to ns2.r4ns.com (176.124.113.200), 16 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  88-190-61-1.poneytelecom.eu (88.190.61.1) [AS12322]  2.695 ms  2.876 ms  3.000 ms
 2  a9k2-1041.dc3.poneytelecom.eu (88.191.1.185) [AS12322]  1.178 ms  1.447 ms  1.516 ms
 3  ix-25-0.thar1.PVU-Paris.as6453.net (80.231.63.21) [AS6453]  0.523 ms  0.522 ms  0.516 ms
 4  if-13-5.tcore1.PVU-Paris.as6453.net (80.231.153.177) [AS6453]  11.326 ms  11.310 ms  11.313 ms
 5  if-12-2.tcore1.PYE-Paris.as6453.net (80.231.154.69) [AS6453]  11.306 ms  11.555 ms  11.290 ms
 6  if-8-1600.tcore1.WYN-Marseille.as6453.net (80.231.217.5) [AS6453]  11.405 ms  11.362 ms if-14-2.tcore1.WYN-Marseille.as6453.net (80.231.154.170) [AS6453]  11.350 ms
 7  if-2-2.tcore2.WYN-Marseille.as6453.net (80.231.217.2) [AS6453]  11.326 ms  11.428 ms  11.507 ms
 8  80.231.200.26 (80.231.200.26) [AS6453]  105.722 ms  105.972 ms  107.541 ms
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  14.140.128.98.static-vsnl.net.in (14.140.128.98) [AS4755]  115.191 ms  115.046 ms  115.022 ms
13  ns2.r4ns.com (176.124.113.200) [as198412/AS23033/AS28513/AS61163/AS198412]  116.479 ms  114.806 ms  114.982 ms

Or from Germany, it goes Los Angeles, California:

traceroute to ns1.r4ns.com (176.124.112.100), 16 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  static.33.203.4.46.clients.your-server.de (46.4.203.33) [AS24940]  0.650 ms  3.633 ms  0.643 ms
 2  hos-tr4.juniper2.rz13.hetzner.de (213.239.224.97) [AS24940]  0.246 ms hos-tr3.juniper2.rz13.hetzner.de (213.239.224.65) [AS24940]  0.234 ms hos-tr2.juniper1.rz13.hetzner.de (213.239.224.33) [AS24940]  0.236 ms
 3  core21.hetzner.de (213.239.245.81) [AS24940]  1.203 ms core22.hetzner.de (213.239.245.121) [AS24940]  0.233 ms  0.236 ms
 4  core22.hetzner.de (213.239.245.162) [AS24940]  0.245 ms  0.236 ms core1.hetzner.de (213.239.245.177) [AS24940]  4.808 ms
 5  juniper1.ffm.hetzner.de (213.239.245.5) [AS24940]  4.837 ms core1.hetzner.de (213.239.245.177) [AS24940]  4.843 ms  4.825 ms
 6  dec-ix-c01.wvfiber.net (80.81.192.220)  6.174 ms  6.230 ms juniper1.ffm.hetzner.de (213.239.245.5) [AS24940]  4.923 ms
 7  dec-ix-c01.wvfiber.net (80.81.192.220)  6.223 ms ams-ten1-4-fra-ten2-1.bboi.net (66.216.50.57) [AS19151, AS19151]  29.457 ms  24.788 ms
 8  ams-ten1-4-fra-ten2-1.bboi.net (66.216.50.57) [AS19151, AS19151]  22.413 ms  19.756 ms ny60-vl2-ams-vl2.bboi.net (66.216.48.217) [AS19151]  109.138 ms
 9  66.216.1.150 (66.216.1.150) [AS19151]  127.527 ms ny60-vl2-ams-vl2.bboi.net (66.216.48.217) [AS19151]  109.68 ms  108.802 ms
10  lv-ten1-3-chi-ten1-6.bboi.net (64.127.128.130) [AS19151]  171.983 ms  171.777 ms *
11  lv-ten1-3-chi-ten1-6.bboi.net (64.127.128.130) [AS19151]  171.794 ms la-ten1-3-lv-ten1-3.bboi.net (66.186.192.21) [AS19151]  178.527 ms  177.967 ms
12  la-ten1-3-lv-ten1-3.bboi.net (66.186.192.21) [AS19151]  178.478 ms  178.82 ms 66.186.197.174 (66.186.197.174) [AS19151]  178.281 ms
13  colo-lax6 (96.44.180.102) [AS29761]  178.17 ms 66.186.197.174 (66.186.197.174) [AS19151]  177.716 ms  177.935 ms
14  lax-qn-gw.as36236.net (72.11.150.122) [AS29761]  177.709 ms  177.764 ms colo-lax6 (96.44.180.102) [AS29761]  184.72 ms
15  lax-qn-gw.as36236.net (72.11.150.122) [AS29761]  178.34 ms 208.111.40.5 (208.111.40.5) [AS36236]  175.688 ms  175.351 ms
16  208.111.40.5 (208.111.40.5) [AS36236]  175.641 ms  175.919 ms ns1.r4ns.com (176.124.112.100) [AS61163 198412]  176.590 ms

Whereas from San Jose, California, it goes to Romania:

traceroute to ns1.r4ns.com (176.124.112.100), 16 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  23.92.24.3 (23.92.24.3) [*]  0.574 ms  0.704 ms  0.846 ms
 2  23.92.24.2 (23.92.24.2) [*]  0.464 ms  0.589 ms  0.749 ms
 3  10gigabitethernet7-6.core3.fmt2.he.net (65.49.10.217) [AS6939]  0.256 ms  0.263 ms  0.245 ms
 4  10gigabitethernet4-3.core1.dal1.he.net (72.52.92.154) [AS6939]  45.442 ms  45.436 ms  45.483 ms
 5  10gigabitethernet5-4.core1.atl1.he.net (184.105.213.114) [AS6939]  65.805 ms  65.797 ms  65.757 ms
 6  10gigabitethernet16-5.core1.ash1.he.net (184.105.213.109) [AS6939]  74.565 ms  74.552 ms  74.537 ms
 7  10gigabitethernet9-2.core1.par2.he.net (184.105.213.94) [AS6939]  163.530 ms  163.534 ms  163.515 ms
 8  10gigabitethernet15-1.core1.fra1.he.net (72.52.92.25) [AS6939]  161.999 ms  163.440 ms  161.952 ms
 9  * * 10Gbps.de-cix.adnettelecom.ro (80.81.194.100) [AS6695]  225.819 ms
10  * * *
11  cr.adnettelecom.ro (77.232.218.33) [AS5541]  193.016 ms  195.493 ms  250.588 ms
12  10gbps.cr5.adnettelecom.ro (77.232.218.102) [AS5541]  249.048 ms  191.119 ms  192.532 ms
13  ns1.r4ns.com (176.124.112.100) [as198412/AS28513/AS33597/AS61163/AS198412]  191.507 ms  246.698 ms  192.140 ms

Why is the routing so suboptimal? Is it because they don't run their own backbone? Or what is the explanation for such poor routing?

dns-hosting

0 Answers