State of internet in China - quick update from Shanghai airport
Just thought to put a quick blog post. Right now I am sitting at Shanghai airport (China) and looking at local Internet routing table of this region. As well know - routing between India & China very much sucks and most of packets go via US.
Here’s a trace from China to India to one of servers I manage:
Anurags-MacBook-Pro:~ anurag$ mtr -wrc 1 lamp1
HOST: Anurags-MacBook-Pro.local Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|– 172.21.183.254 0.0% 1 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 0.0
2.|– 192.168.88.2 0.0% 1 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 0.0
3.|– 180.168.176.97 0.0% 1 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 0.0
4.|– 124.74.100.181 0.0% 1 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 0.0
5.|– 218.1.2.69 0.0% 1 7.4 7.4 7.4 7.4 0.0
6.|– 124.74.215.65 0.0% 1 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 0.0
7.|– 61.152.86.198 0.0% 1 7.4 7.4 7.4 7.4 0.0
8.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
9.|– 202.97.35.26 0.0% 1 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 0.0
10.|– 202.97.52.30 0.0% 1 226.8 226.8 226.8 226.8 0.0
11.|– ldngw1.arcor-ip.net 0.0% 1 209.2 209.2 209.2 209.2 0.0
12.|– 145.253.33.238 0.0% 1 208.8 208.8 208.8 208.8 0.0
13.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
14.|– 182.19.15.1 0.0% 1 358.9 358.9 358.9 358.9 0.0
15.|– 203.122.61.148.reverse.spectranet.in 0.0% 1 362.1 362.1 362.1 362.1 0.0
16.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
17.|– 203.92.40.206.reverse.spectranet.in 0.0% 1 378.6 378.6 378.6 378.6 0.0
Anurags-MacBook-Pro:~ anurag$
And return path (India > China)
anurag@nod-lamp-srv1:~$ mtr -wrc 1 180.168.176.99
Start: Mon Feb 23 10:54:29 2015
HOST: nod-lamp-srv1.spectranet.in Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|– 203.92.40.205.reverse.spectranet.in 0.0% 1 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
2.|– NOD_IGW_RR1.Spectranet.in 0.0% 1 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.0
3.|– 203.122.61.249.reverse.spectranet.in 0.0% 1 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 0.0
4.|– 182.19.15.2 0.0% 1 7.3 7.3 7.3 7.3 0.0
5.|– 182.19.115.233 0.0% 1 156.1 156.1 156.1 156.1 0.0
6.|– 145.253.33.237 0.0% 1 153.7 153.7 153.7 153.7 0.0
7.|– 195.66.225.54 0.0% 1 155.3 155.3 155.3 155.3 0.0
8.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
9.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
10.|– 202.97.50.229 0.0% 1 457.5 457.5 457.5 457.5 0.0
11.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
anurag@nod-lamp-srv1:~$
This is overall very much expected since I have not see any major efforts by Chinese telcos to peer within Asian region. What is surprising is that I hear within industry that Chinese operators don’t even buy Amerian transit. So how exactly deal works out? I am not personally sure, but I believe Chinese telcos have lot of capacity on Pacific routes towards Japan > California and happen to interconnect/buy low amount of transit/ do bargin deal in that region in return for Chinese routes. But coming to million $ question - how exactly Google AS15169 is served in the region? A trace to “www.google.com” takes me no where on the Airport free wifi network.
Anurags-MacBook-Pro:~ anurag$ mtr -wrc 1 www.google.com
HOST: Anurags-MacBook-Pro.local Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|– 172.21.183.254 0.0% 1 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 0.0
2.|– 192.168.88.2 0.0% 1 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.2 0.0
3.|– 180.168.176.97 0.0% 1 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 0.0
4.|– 124.74.100.181 0.0% 1 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 0.0
5.|– 4ge1-ip-xxsn-012.online.sh.cn 0.0% 1 9.6 9.6 9.6 9.6 0.0
6.|– 124.74.215.69 0.0% 1 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.9 0.0
7.|– 202.101.63.162 0.0% 1 5.1 5.1 5.1 5.1 0.0
8.|– 202.97.50.226 0.0% 1 8.1 8.1 8.1 8.1 0.0
9.|– ??? 100.0 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Anurags-MacBook-Pro:~ anurag$
Since I am off to APRICOT, this is likely best possible even to find actual relationship of Chinese telcos with Western world. Some kind of DPI is hijacking packets going towards Google and instead throwing off this page.
Likely only country in world where I am needed to connected to our corporate VPN just to get access to personal Gmail account!! Except decent speed on wifi, it pretty much sucks with high latency, no local CDN, poor peering and what not. That’s the state of core connectivity in China. I guess overall impact is less for local citizens since everyone goes for Chinese content (which ofcourse would be hosted locally). Time to get to next plane and continue journey.