Tata-Communications

It has been super boring evening considering my sessional tests tomorrow. Test time is dull as always. I have been precisely measnuring latency on BSNL link from BSNL Haryana to Singapore based servers. The fluctuation in latency is pretty much common now. Someones we get 120ms latency to Singapore (an expected number based on distance) while other time it goes off as high as 310ms. Latency with openDNS nodes in Singapore makes it pretty much poor to use openDNS here.   Based on my collected data and BGPlay’s routing records, here’s what’s happening. My IP is coming /20 BGP annoucement from BSNL Autonomous System 9829 - 117.207.48.0/20. Looking at BGP table records for that block from BGPlay’s routing data archive source.

Interestingly routing issues didn’t spare one of top CDN provider - Akamai!

So what’s wrong?

(from my BSNL connection):

PING akamai.com (61.213.189.49) 56(84) bytes of data.  
64 bytes from 61.213.189.49: icmp_req=1 ttl=52 time=492 ms  
64 bytes from 61.213.189.49: icmp_req=2 ttl=52 time=492 ms  
64 bytes from 61.213.189.49: icmp_req=3 ttl=52 time=474 ms  
64 bytes from 61.213.189.49: icmp_req=4 ttl=51 time=492 ms  
64 bytes from 61.213.189.49: icmp_req=5 ttl=51 time=489 ms

\--- akamai.com ping statistics --- 
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 22236ms  
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 474.296/488.469/492.837/7.183 ms

~ 500ms is way too high. Even US is at like 300ms latency.

Looking at traceroute: 

traceroute to akamai.com (61.213.189.49), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets  
1 router.local (192.168.1.1) [AS8151/AS28513] 4.223 ms 4.979 ms 5.879 ms  
2 117.200.48.1 (117.200.48.1) [AS9829] 45.241 ms 46.384 ms 52.839 ms  
3 218.248.173.46 (218.248.173.46) [AS9829] 87.089 ms \* \*  
4 115.114.57.165.static-Mumbai.vsnl.net.in (115.114.57.165) [AS4755] 74.675 ms 76.970 ms 80.856 ms  
5 if-0-100.tcore2.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.39.25) [\*] 83.234 ms 84.403 ms 87.742 ms  
6 if-6-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net (80.231.130.5) [AS6453] 230.777 ms 185.553 ms 194.288 ms  
7 \* Vlan704.icore1.LDN-London.as6453.net (80.231.130.10) [AS6453] 203.104 ms \*  
8 Vlan522.icore1.LDN-London.as6453.net (195.219.83.22) [AS6453] 308.973 ms 310.324 ms 311.038 ms  
9 ae-4.r23.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.40) [AS2914] 311.799 ms 333.841 ms 313.348 ms  
10 as-0.r22.osakjp01.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.35) [AS2914] 499.075 ms 501.158 ms 512.657 ms  
11 ae-5.r24.tokyjp01.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.221) [AS2914] 484.258 ms 485.401 ms 499.039 ms  
12 \* \* \*  
13 xe-2-3.a17.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net (61.213.169.214) [AS2914] 488.807 ms 489.543 ms 495.396 ms  
14 61.213.189.49 (61.213.189.49) [AS2914] 506.170 ms 501.504 ms 507.296 ms

So route is like Mumbai (India) - London (UK) - Tokyo (Japan).

Quick traceroute between Reliance and Neotel (South African subsidiary of Tata Communications)

Using Reliance Mumbai node: 

You requested a Traceroute from Mumbai (62.216.135.130) to neotel.co.za (41.168.1.110) 

   1 ge-0-2-0.0.pjr02.mmb004.flagtel.com (85.95.25.70) 80.252 ms 79.822 ms 79.737 ms  
   MPLS Label=351552 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
   2 so-1-3-0.0.pjr02.hkg005.flagtel.com (85.95.25.118) 79.688 ms 79.717 ms 79.779 ms  
   MPLS Label=301328 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
   3 so-5-0-0.0.cjr04.hkg003.flagtel.com (85.95.25.214) 79.790 ms 81.271 ms 84.868 ms  
   MPLS Label=300272 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
   4 xe-1-2-0.0.cji01.hkg003.flagtel.com (62.216.128.66) 79.504 ms 79.587 ms 79.452 ms  
   5 62.216.145.194 (62.216.145.194) 85.660 ms 79.769 ms *  
   6 if-2-0-0-1123.core3.HK2-HongKong.as6453.net (216.6.95.137) [AS 6453] 79.930 ms 79.884 ms 79.775 ms  
   7 180.87.15.81 (180.87.15.81) [AS 6453] 295.413 ms 295.675 ms 295.695 ms  
   MPLS Label=300800 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
   8 if-5-2.tcore2.CXR-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.15.70) [AS 6453] 296.944 ms if-2-2.tcore1.SVW-Singapore.as6453.net (180.87.12.1) [AS 6453] 311.951 ms 311.784 ms  
   MPLS Label=299968 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
   9 if-3-3.tcore1.CXR-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.36.5) [AS 6453] 311.636 ms if-5-2.tcore1.CXR-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.12.54) [AS 6453] 312.689 ms 312.041 ms  
   MPLS Label=300688 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
  10 if-4-0-0.core1.CFO-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.36.18) [AS 6453] 144.922 ms if-15-1-0.core1.CFO-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.36.14) [AS 6453] 145.223 ms if-4-0-0.core1.CFO-Chennai.as6453.net (180.87.36.18) [AS 6453] 144.627 ms  
   MPLS Label=1578 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
  11 116.0.86.1 (116.0.86.1) [AS 6453] 155.796 ms 155.857 ms 154.918 ms  
   MPLS Label=3107 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
  12 116.0.86.30 (116.0.86.30) [AS 6453] 341.019 ms 312.304 ms 322.348 ms  
   MPLS Label=306816 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1  
  13 if-2-2.tcore1.JSO-Johannesburg.as6453.net (216.6.55.85) [AS 6453] 312.133 ms 311.860 ms 311.718 ms  
  14 216.6.55.38 (216.6.55.38) [AS 6453] 324.450 ms 295.062 ms 296.033 ms  
  15 41.160.0.243 (41.160.0.243) [AS 36937] 312.371 ms 313.074 ms 311.998 ms  
  16 * * *  
  17 * * *  
  18 * * *

So it’s like Mumbai-India-Reliance | Hong Kong-Reliance | Hong Kong - Tata | Chennai -India-Tata | Somewhere in middle-Europe | Johannesburg - Tata