Collection and characterization of BCNET BGP traffic

Measuring and monitoring traffic in deployed communication networks is necessary for effective network operations. Traffic analysis allows network operators to understand the network user’s behavior and ensure quality of service (QoS). In this thesis, we describe collection, extraction, and analysis of BGP traffic. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an Inter-Autonomous System routing protocol that operates over a reliable transport protocol (TCP). We collected real traffic from a real deployed network called BCNET. Collection of real traffic was used in the process of extraction of BGP messages and their attributes. The traffic was collected using special purpose hardware: Net Optics Director 7400, Ninjabox 5000, and the Endace DAG 5.2X card. Collected data were analyzed and compared using the Wireshark, an open-source packet analyzer. Walrus, a visualization tool, was used to visualize the graphs in three-dimensional space.