January 26, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Merit Network, Inc. announced today a groundbreaking new feature of their Routing Assets Database (RADb). Merit RADb, the largest public Internet routing registry in the world, is now equipped with innovative functions to provide users with critical information on the health of their networks.
Merit Network will present a live demonstration of Merit RADb’s new features at NANOG51, January 30-February 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida.
“Merit is excited about this release and Merit RADb’s new features,” said Merit Network President and CEO, Don Welch. “The new features leverage the current database to tell you more about the health of your network.”
According to Merit Network’s Director of Research and Development, Manish Karir, the new features represent a fundamental shift in Merit RADb:
“In the previous version of Merit RADb, the Database provided value because it was a repository for a wealth of information that could be used for route troubleshooting, backbone configuration, network planning and more. The new features introduced today add to that value.”
“The new Merit RADb sends important information back to users through the portal interface, identifying suspected spam or botnet activity,” Karir explained. “The improved object framework provides convenient and powerful asset management and diagnostic tools.”
Merit RADb’s latest addition, “Routing Asset Health,” features two new functions that will provide users with a better understanding of the status and health of their registered networks at any given time. The new functions focus on the stability of routes that have been registered in the Database and the reputation of individual hosts within those routing blocks.
“Prefix Alerts” now inform users about potential anomalies related to their registered prefixes. Merit RADb accomplishes this by analyzing registered BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) tables and historical origin ASN (Autonomous System Number) information in reference to what is observed in real-time.
Merit RADb has partnered with a number of data providers including Spamhaus, SpamCop, and Shadowserver, as well as several commonly used open data sources such as UCEPROTECT, DShield, and WPBL to better identify suspicious behavior originating from hosts inside a user’s network.
“Host Reputation” is a new function that utilizes this wide range of disparate data sources. It aggregates a substantial amount of security information about network hosts and displays it all in one easy to access location.
“The correlation across multiple data sources provided by the new “Host Reputation” function is a much stronger indication of true positives that actually deserve closer investigation and can help you monitor the externally perceived health of your network,” Karir said.
In addition to the innovative “Routing Asset Health” functions, Merit RADb has improved its user interface, making it easier to view and modify existing information. RADb now features a simplified process by which users access and view core IRR (Internet Routing Registry) function information, registered data consistency, and RIR (Regional Internet Registry) prefix content to improve the overall user experience.
NANOG51 will take place at the Hotel InterContinental Miami, January 30 to February 2, 2011. In addition to a live demonstration of Merit RADb’s new capabilities, NANOG51 will include tutorials, presentations, panel discussions and leading-edge networking examples.
About Merit RADb
Merit RADb is a public registry of routing information for networks in the Internet. Hundreds of organizations that operate networks – including ISPs, universities, and business enterprises – publicly publish, or register, their routing information in Merit RADb to facilitate the operation of the Internet. Organizations throughout the world use the information in Merit RADb to troubleshoot routing problems, automatically configure backbone routers, generate access lists, and perform network planning. Any Internet user may query Merit RADb for free. Currently, Merit RADb receives about 2,000,000 queries per day from over 2,000 unique hosts. More than 1,800 organizations have registered their routing information in Merit RADb, with new organizations registering every day.
For more information: www.radb.net
About Merit Network
Merit Network Inc., is a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.merit.edu
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