BGP Private and Public AS Range

BGP Private and Public AS Range: On the internet, we have 2byte AS Numbers and 4 Byte AS Numbers. In this post, we will explain what are the BGP Private and Public AS Range for 2 byte AS and 4 byte AS numbers. Where Private BGP AS number is used and should be used and where Public AS Numbers in BGP is used and should be used. Not just where they should be used but also we will discuss where they shouldn’t be used too.

BGP Private AS Range for 2 Byte AS Numbers

A 2 byte AS number is a 16-bit number. This format provides for 65536 ASNs (0 to 65535). From these ASNs, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reserved 1,023 of them (64512 to 65534) for private/internal usage.

BGP Private AS Range for 2-byte AS Number is between 64512 to 65535.

So we have 1023 BGP AS Numbers to use in a 2-byte ASN schema. Private AS numbers, similar to the Private IP address range (RFC 1918), should be used internally in the networks.

Not, external networks, such as the Internet. On Internet, in the Global Routing table, which is also known as Default Free Continue reading

9 hot jobs in the evolving data center

As data centers evolve, the skills needed to run them change as well, creating both a challenge and opportunity for current data-center workers.By necessity, modern data centers are at the forefront of efficiency for energy consumption, space utilization and automation. That efficiency extends to the personnel that staffs them and who must swiftly implement hardware, software, and architecture changes as best practices improve. That calls for new roles in administration, management, and planning.Existing career fields and legacy skill sets won’t cut it in many cases, but IT pros will be able to augment their existing skills to fill new roles as they open up—jobs with a more forward-looking focus.To read this article in full, please click here

9 hot jobs in the evolving data center

As data centers evolve, the skills needed to run them change as well, creating both a challenge and opportunity for current data-center workers.By necessity, modern data centers are at the forefront of efficiency for energy consumption, space utilization and automation. That efficiency extends to the personnel that staffs them and who must swiftly implement hardware, software, and architecture changes as best practices improve. That calls for new roles in administration, management, and planning.Existing career fields and legacy skill sets won’t cut it in many cases, but IT pros will be able to augment their existing skills to fill new roles as they open up—jobs with a more forward-looking focus.To read this article in full, please click here

Creating VRF Lite Labs With netlab

I always found VRF lab setups a chore. On top of the usual IPAM tasks you have to create VRFs, assign route targets and route distinguishers, do that on every PE-router in your lab… before you can start working on interesting things.

I tried to remove as much friction as I could with the netlab VRF configuration module – let me walk you through a few simple examples1 which will also serve to illustrate the VRF configuration differences between Cisco IOS and Arista EOS.

Read more …

Creating VRF Lite Labs With netsim-tools

I always found VRF lab setups a chore. On top of the usual IPAM tasks you have to create VRFs, assign route targets and route distinguishers, do that on every PE-router in your lab… before you can start working on interesting things.

I tried to remove as much friction as I could with the netsim-tools VRF configuration module – let me walk you through a few simple examples1 which will also serve to illustrate the VRF configuration differences between Cisco IOS and Arista EOS.

Read more …

Events. My first MPLS World Congress: Impressions, Feelings, and Raise of AI.

Hello my friend,

This year I had an incredible opportunity to attend an event, which I wanted to attend for quite a bit back in past, when I was working for service providers (e.g., Vodafone, A1 BLR / Telekom Austria Group). The full name of the event is MPLS SDN and AI World Congress 2022, or simply #mplswc22.



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No part of this blogpost could be reproduced, stored in a 

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any 

means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, 

or otherwise, for commercial purposes without the 

prior permission of the author.

Thanks

I’m very helpful to my friends and colleagues Pau Nadeu Rabat and Jose Manuel Roman Fernandez Checa for inviting me to take part in the event. 

Brief History of the Event

MPLS SDN AI World Congress is one of the biggest events in the networking industry in the Europe. Originally it was called simple MPLS World Congress (hence, the name #mplswc22) and was aiming to bring together the biggest service providers (like the guys I worked for before, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, etc) and vendors of telecom equipment and software (like, Nokia, which I also Continue reading

BGP LU – Labeled Unicast – RFC 3107

BGP LU – BGP Labeled Unicast was defined in RFC 3107. BGP LU is used so commonly in many different network architectures and frameworks. In this post, BGP LU is explained with its use cases.

BGP LU – Labeled Unicast allows BGP to advertise an MPLS Label for the IPv4 and IPv6 Unicast prefixes.

Those who know MPLS may know but let me remind you if an IP prefix is learned via IGP routing protocols such as OSPF and IS-IS, then LDP, RSVP, and Segment Routing can assign an MPLS Label. But if the prefix is learned via BGP, only BGP can assign an MPLS Label. Assigning a label by BGP for the IPv4 or IPv6 Unicast prefix is known as BGP Labeled Unicast.

It is quite easy to understand what is BGP LU but at the beginning of the post, as I said, let’s have a look at its use cases.

BGP LU – RFC 3107 in Inter-AS MPLS VPN

It is used in Inter-AS MPLS VPN Option C, between the ASBRs (Autonomous System Boundary Routers).

In Inter-AS Option C, infrastructure prefixes of ASes are exchanged and for those prefixes, MPLS Label is assigned by BGP. Inter-AS MPLS Continue reading

Worth Reading: Full-Stack Network Automation

Lívio Zanol Puppim published a series of blog posts describing a full-stack network automation, including GitOps with GitLab, handling secrets with Hashicorp Vault, using Ansible and AWX to run automation scripts, continuous integration with Gitlab CI Runner, and topped it off with a REST API and React-based user interface.

You might not want to use the exact same components, but it’s probably worthwhile going through his solution and explore the source code. He’s also looking for any comments or feedback you might have on how to improve what he did.

Worth Reading: Full-Stack Network Automation

Lívio Zanol Puppim published a series of blog posts describing a full-stack network automation, including GitOps with GitLab, handling secrets with Hashicorp Vault, using Ansible and AWX to run automation scripts, continuous integration with Gitlab CI Runner, and topped it off with a REST API and React-based user interface.

You might not want to use the exact same components, but it’s probably worthwhile going through his solution and explore the source code. He’s also looking for any comments or feedback you might have on how to improve what he did.

Hedge: April Update

You can register for my network troubleshooting course here.

Information about the IEEE Network Softwarification Conference can be found here.

Our upcoming episodes for this month are George Michaelson on the death of ISDN and old networks; an update on the FR Routing project; and Rick Graziani on college and network engineering. Thanks for listening to the Hedge!

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Unicast Multicast Broadcast Anycast and Incast Traffic Types

Unicast Multicast Broadcast Anycast and Incast Traffic Types will be explained in this post. Traffic flow/traffic types are important information that needs to be considered in Network Design, thus understanding each one of them by every IT Engineer is critical and Important for Application requirements, Security, and Performance of the overall system.

unicast vs multicast vs broadcast vs any cast

In this blog post, Unicast, Multicast, Broadcast, and Anycast traffic types/patterns will be explained with examples and the topologies.

Unicast Traffic Flow

Unicast traffic type is a point-to-point communication type. Usually from a scalability perspective, Unicast is not the desired traffic type. But if there are only two points that communicate with each other, Unicast is an optimal choice.

Multicast Traffic Flow

Point to Multipoint or Multi-Point to Multi-Point Traffic type. If the communication is targeted to a group of recipients, then the Multicast traffic type is more suitable. Multicast source/sender, receivers, and multicast groups are the components of Multicast communication. A classical example is IPTV – IP Television.

One multicast group is assigned for each IPTV channel and only interested receivers get the stream.

Broadcast Traffic Flow

If traffic is sent to everyone, regardless of considering if there is an uninterested receiver, then it is a broadcast Continue reading

Worth Reading: The AI Illusion

Russ White’s Weekend Reads are full of gems, including a recent pointer to the AI Illusion – State-of-the-Art Chatbots Aren’t What They Seem article. It starts with “Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron. Despite all the incredible things computers can do, they are still not intelligent in any meaningful sense of the word.” and it only gets better.

While the article focuses on natural language processing (GPT-3 model), I see no reason why we should expect better performance from AI in networking (see also: AI/ML in Networking – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).

Worth Reading: The AI Illusion

Russ White’s Weekend Reads are full of gems, including a recent pointer to the AI Illusion – State-of-the-Art Chatbots Aren’t What They Seem article. It starts with “Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron. Despite all the incredible things computers can do, they are still not intelligent in any meaningful sense of the word.” and it only gets better.

While the article focuses on natural language processing (GPT-3 model), I see no reason why we should expect better performance from AI in networking (see also: AI/ML in Networking – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).

Stacking Up L2 Cache, RIKEN Shows 10X Speedup For A64FX By 2028

Let the era of 3D V-Cache in HPC begin.

Inspired by the idea of AMD’s “Milan-X” Epyc 7003 processors with their 3D V-Cache stacked L3 cache memory and then propelled by actual benchmark tests pitting regular Milan CPUs against Milan-X processors using real-world and synthetic HPC applications, researchers at RIKEN Lab in Japan, where the “Fugaku” supercomputer based on Fujitsu’s impressive A64FX vectorized Arm server chip, have fired up a simulation of a hypothetical A64FX follow-on that could, in theory, be built in 2028 and provide nearly an order of magnitude more performance than the current A64FX. …

Stacking Up L2 Cache, RIKEN Shows 10X Speedup For A64FX By 2028 was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Weekend Reads 040822


These guidelines are not about finding a perfectly secure solution but about practical, immediate possible actions with respect to email, instant messaging, voice and video chats, and other important security measures to consider.


The governance of an IXP can deeply affect its development. The difficulty of stating a clear management policy for IXP is the main challenge that limits the growth, sustainability and success of IXPs. In the past years, there have not been enough initiatives that support creating such policies for IXP management.


European telecommunication service providers are being pushed to pick up the pace regarding 5G adoption. However, the next-gen technology requires immense data capacity and transmission speeds, thus setting up the new infrastructure is no easy task for telcos.


With businesses around the globe—especially in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe—bracing for potential cyber-attacks orchestrated by Russia or its hackers, a leading cyber security firm is warning most software upgrades are not adequately addressing the most vulnerable component of the “modern cyber-attack surface.”


Now, a new lawsuit is giving consumers an unprecedented peek into this opaque world, and illuminating just how easily a data broker can lose control of the user information it collects.


Sure, Continue reading

MPLS Benefits 4 Very important things to understand!

MPLS Benefits and Advantages, Network Engineers should understand MPLS. In this post, we will look at what are the benefits of deploying MPLS in the Network, and the advantages of having MPLS-enabled infrastructure.

MPLS is Multi-Protocol Label Switching as you might know already. Multi-Protocol because we can carry many different types of traffic over MPLS.

MPLS is Multi-Protocol Technology

Layer 2 and Layer 3 network traffic Ethernet, Frame Frame-Relay, ATM, TDM different types of traffic was carried over MPLS. Because it provides an abstraction layer for the protocols, it is possible to carry many different types of traffic that couldn’t be possible with other technologies easily.

MPLS is a Scalable Protocol

If we talk about MPLS benefits, probably one of the most important ones would be MPLS Scalability. There is a popular belief that MPLS was invented because the packet processing resource requirement and lookup speed are faster with MPLS, compare to IP destination-based lookup.

Because MPLS is just a switching operation on the Mid-Label Switch Routers – LSR, and MPLS Label is 20 bits long, compared to IP which is 32 bits long with IPv4 and 128 bits long with IPv6, MPLS was considered a better performance protocol, Continue reading

Helpdesk Skills Fit the Bill

RedLEDKeyboard

I saw a great tweet yesterday from Swift on Security that talked about helpdesk work and how it’s nothing to be ashamed of:

I thought it was especially important to call this out for my readers. I’ve made no secret that my first “real” job in IT was on the national helpdesk for Gateway Computers through a contractor. I was there for about six months before I got a job doing more enterprise-type support work. And while my skills today are far above what I did when I started out having customers search for red floppy disks and removing helper apps in MSCONFIG, the basics that I learned there are things I still carry with me today.

Rocket Science

Most people have a negative outlook on helpdesk work. They see it as entry-level and not worth admitting to. They also don’t quite understand Continue reading

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