Being part of MANRS as an IXP implies fulfilling at least three out of five requirements. CATNIX complies with all five, something that only the Neutral Internet Exchange (NL-IX) had reached before.
Requirements are as follows:
- Filtering of route announcements. CATNIX uses a Route-Server from Bird to validate received route announcements and subsequently filter them to other peers.
- Promote MANRS among the IXP community. This action considers, at the same time, CATNIX’s will to inform about the benefits of applying MANRS criteria among its members, to offer them assistance or to disseminate the MANRS initiative.
- Protect the peering platform. CATNIX does it through a published policy of not allowed traffic on the peering fabric.
- Facilitate global operational communication and coordination between network operators.
- Provide monitoring and debugging tools. For example, the Looking Glass tool, one of the most outstanding tools at CATNIX.
With CATNIX, CSUC already has two of its services within the MANRS initiative, as the Anella Científica became a member of this global initiative last May as an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
What is MANRS?
Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing (MANRS) is a global initiative, with the support of the Internet Society (ISOC), to actively protect the Internet.
The participation of IXPs like CATNIX at MANRS is a step forward to achieve a more secure and robust routing infrastructure.