One *more* new service now live at the MIXP is a route collector and looking glass.
This only becomes useful though if all members set up peering to the route-collector.
The route collector is a BGP speaker (or rather listener) that is similar to the route servers in that it doesn’t forward any traffic. However, it also does not advertise or share any routes or prefixes either.
In other words, it’s entirely one way. It accepts and learns your prefixes, but does nothing else with them.
So why have it, and why peer with it. Quite simply, attached to it is a web based looking glass service:
This is a very important diagnostic and metric tool for you, the members and future members. It allows only BGP queries and is a very quick and easy way to troubleshoot and see what prefixes and ASNs are at the IXP. It’s also very useful for statistics and other research.
All members are highly highly highly encouraged to peer with the route collection service. And it may in future become a compulsory requirement to connect the IXP, although that will need internal discussion.
Note that as the route-collector never shares or advertises, nor passes any traffic, it is completely safe to set up a session to.
Please add your BGP session for:
ASN: AS 327821 IPv4: 196.223.0.199 IPV6: 2001:43f8:270:d0d0::199
Looking forward to seeing the sessions live in the looking glass!