International fiber backbone provider Telia Carrier announced on Monday that it's using Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) for security in its internet routing infrastructure.
RPKI is a public key infrastructure framework designed to secure the internet’s routing infrastructure, specifically the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the standard routing protocol of the internet.
Use of RPKI can reduce the risk of accidental route leaks or hijacks that can result in network outages or traffic manipulation. As one of the world's largest internet backbone providers, Telia Carrier said it bore the responsibility of ensuring the security and stability of internet routing as a whole.
RPKI is a mechanism by which internet address (IP) resource owners can ensure that they provide an authoritative list of allowable upstreams to the world. Network Operators who opt-in to use RPKI validation and filtering can choose to reject announcements from networks not authorized to advertise those resources. Although not a new technology, RPKI has struggled to gain traction with resource owners and network operators.
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Telia Carrier's global internet backbone, AS1299, is the currently the world's largest, according to Dyn Research's global backbone rankings. All told, Telia Carrier's backbone accounts for nearly 60% of global internet routes.
Over the past 25 years, Telia Carrier has grown its global fiber network organically without acquisitions. Telia Carrier recently announced the first real-time transmission of 600 Gbps wavelengths in a live production network and it was the first network to successfully transmit 1 Tb/s in super channels on its U.S. network.
Telia Carrier's global network serves more than 300 points of presence (PoPs) across 35 countries using its 65,000 km of optical fiber.