Presentation by Vivek Nigam at APNIC 44 on Wednesday, 13 September 2017

1. IP Geolocation Information
Update
Vivek Nigam
vivek@apnic.net

2. Overview
• IP geolocation ecosystem
• What location information is available from APNIC
• Ideas for solutions
2

3. IP geolocation
ecosystem
3

4. IP geolocation
ecosystem
4

5. 5
IP geolocation
ecosystem

6. 6
IP geolocation
ecosystem

7. Location information available from APNIC
7
• APNIC data
• Member data

8. For records maintained by APNIC, we record the economy
where your organization is registered
– Portable inetnum and inet6num
– Public stats file
8
APNIC data
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/public/stats/apnic/delegated-apnic-latest

9. Members can register customer assignments to indicate the
location where their network is deployed
– “country” attribute in customer assignments can be used to indicate
the economy where those IP addresses are used
– “geoloc” attribute can be used to associate a latitude/longitude
coordinate pair with a particular address block
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Member data

10. Limitations with Member data
10
APNIC data
Member data
• The “country” attribute in
customer assignments
can be used to indicate
the economy where
those IP addresses are
used or where the
customer organization is
registered

11. Limitations with Member data
11
APNIC data
Member data
• Customer assignments
cannot be made from
ASSIGNED
PORTABLE blocks
• Geoloc attribute is
not widely used

12. Limitations with Member data
12
“Hi,
Need assistance for the below
Requirement: We are planning to advertise /24 APNIC prefix from
Philippines Manila office for Internet link auto failover.
Problem Statement: While doing test from Philippians office ,we have
found couple of challenges due to range is registered with APNIC.
1) Philippines Government local sites are not opening/working.
2) If we use APNIC range, by default google.co.in (India page) is opening
vs local google page.”

13. APNIC data used for IP location
13
“Hi Team,
We have a customer using the below file to query what
country an IP address is assigned to:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/public/stats/apnic/legacy-apnic-latest”
“Dear APNIC Helpdesk,
We need your help to change the IP location in
http://ftp.apnic.net/stats/apnic/delegated-apnic-latest”

14. Geolocation problems after IP transfers
14
Resources
transferred from
AU Member to
NZ Member
APNIC data
updated to
reflect NZ
registration
Member
reported their
IP geolocation
changed from
AU to NZ
Updating
Member data
did not make
any difference
Member
requested to
reverse APNIC
data from NZ
back to AU

15. Potential solution
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• Organization objects can
now be used to indicate
the economy where your
organization is registered
• Allow Members to update
country attribute to
indicate the where those
IP addresses are used
APNIC data

16. Potential solution
16
• Provide tool in MyAPNIC
that Members can use to
indicate network location
(reduce ambiguity)
• Publish network location
information in a new public
stats file (improve visibility)
Network
location

17. Benefits
• May fix some Member geolocation issues
• Will improve clarity
Concerns
• Member data is not validated
• Will geolocation providers and customers use this data?
17

18. Questions?