article

Practical verification techniques for wide-area routing

Author:

Nick FeamsterAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 34, Issue 1

Pages 87 - 92

https://doi.org/10.1145/972374.972390

Published: 01 January 2004 Publication History

Abstract

Protocol and system designers use verification techniques to analyze a system's correctness properties. Network operators need verification techniques to ensure the "correct" operation of BGP. BGP's distributed dependencies cause small configuration mistakes or oversights to spur complex errors, which sometimes have devastating effects on global connectivity. These errors are often difficult to debug because they are sometimes only exposed by a specific message arrival pattern or failure scenario.This paper presents an approach to BGP verification that is primarily based on static analysis of router configuration. We argue that: (1) because BGP's a configuration affects its fundamental behavior, verification is a program analysis problem, (2) BGP's complex, dynamic interactions are difficult to abstract and impossible to enumerate, which precludes existing verification techniques, (3) because of BGP's flexible, policy-based configuration, some aspects of BGP configuration must be checked against a higher-level specification of intended policy, and (4) although static analysis can catch many configuration errors, simulation and emulation are also necessary to determine the precise scenarios that could expose errors at runtime. Based on these observations, we propose the design of a BGP verification tool, discuss how it could be applied in practice, and describe future research challenges.

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Cited By

Hart NRotsos CGiotsas VRace NHutchison D(2020)λBGP: Rethinking BGP programmabilityNOMS 2020 - 2020 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium10.1109/NOMS47738.2020.9110331(1-9)Online publication date: 20-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/NOMS47738.2020.9110331
Vanhoef MPiessens FRossow CYounan Y(2018)Symbolic execution of security protocol implementationsProceedings of the 12th USENIX Conference on Offensive Technologies10.5555/3307423.3307436(13-13)Online publication date: 13-Aug-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3307423.3307436
Yao JVenkitasubramaniam PKishore SSnyder LBlum R(2017)Network topology risk assessment of stealthy cyber attacks on advanced metering infrastructure networks2017 51st Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS)10.1109/CISS.2017.7926147(1-6)Online publication date: Mar-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/CISS.2017.7926147
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Index Terms

Practical verification techniques for wide-area routing
1. Networks
  1. Network protocols
    1. Network layer protocols
      1. Routing protocols

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cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 34, Issue 1

January 2004

140 pages

ISSN:0146-4833

DOI:10.1145/972374

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2004 Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 2004

Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 34, Issue 1

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Cited By

Hart NRotsos CGiotsas VRace NHutchison D(2020)λBGP: Rethinking BGP programmabilityNOMS 2020 - 2020 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium10.1109/NOMS47738.2020.9110331(1-9)Online publication date: 20-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/NOMS47738.2020.9110331
Vanhoef MPiessens FRossow CYounan Y(2018)Symbolic execution of security protocol implementationsProceedings of the 12th USENIX Conference on Offensive Technologies10.5555/3307423.3307436(13-13)Online publication date: 13-Aug-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3307423.3307436
Yao JVenkitasubramaniam PKishore SSnyder LBlum R(2017)Network topology risk assessment of stealthy cyber attacks on advanced metering infrastructure networks2017 51st Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS)10.1109/CISS.2017.7926147(1-6)Online publication date: Mar-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/CISS.2017.7926147
HIMURA YYASUDA Y(2015)Bridging the Gap between Tenant CMDB and Device Status in Multi-Tenant Datacenter NetworkingIEICE Transactions on Communications10.1587/transcom.E98.B.2132E98.B:11(2132-2140)Online publication date: 2015
https://doi.org/10.1587/transcom.E98.B.2132
Qadir JHasan O(2015)Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques, and ApplicationsIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials10.1109/COMST.2014.234579217:1(256-291)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/COMST.2014.2345792
Song JCadar CPietzuch P(2014)SymbexNetIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2014.232397740:7(695-709)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2014.2323977
Deca RCherkaoui OSavaria Y(2012)Rule-Based Network Service ProvisioningJournal of Networks10.4304/jnw.7.10.1493-15047:10Online publication date: 1-Oct-2012
https://doi.org/10.4304/jnw.7.10.1493-1504
LIANG WBI JLI ZXIA Y(2011)Towards Inferring Inter-Domain Routing Policies in ISP NetworksIEICE Transactions on Communications10.1587/transcom.E94.B.3049E94-B:11(3049-3056)Online publication date: 2011
https://doi.org/10.1587/transcom.E94.B.3049
Huadmai C(2011)Verification of routing policies by using model checking techniqueProceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems10.1109/IDAACS.2011.6072863(711-716)Online publication date: Sep-2011
https://doi.org/10.1109/IDAACS.2011.6072863
Wei Liang Jingping Bi Yiting Xia Chengchen Hu (2011)RPIM: Inferring BGP Routing Policies in ISP Networks2011 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference - GLOBECOM 201110.1109/GLOCOM.2011.6133970(1-6)Online publication date: Dec-2011
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