The Ottawa Internet Exchange is involved in a number of research activities related to Internet operations and architecture. Some of these projects are run locally for the benefit of the OttIX community while others are done in a collaborative nature with others on the Internet. Some of these projects are described here.

ISC SIE

OttIX contributes data from its AS112 node to the Internet Systems Consortium's Security Information Exchange framework to aid in the analysis of DNS behaviours to detect network misuse.

6to4 Anycast

OttIX runs a public 6to4 [RFC3056] [RFC3068] server which has been made available not only Canada-wide via the CANARIE network but also to OttIX users as well. 6to4 is an IPv6 transition technology designed to interconnect isolated islands of IPv6 computers over the IPv4-only Internet. OttIX has created a statistics page to demonstrate the use of its server.

IXmaps

OttIX contributes traceroute data to the IXmaps project which seeks to map the path Canadian-sourced and -destined traffic takes. Most results show that traffic doesn't stay in Canada, so the object is to document this.

IX BGP Table Analysis

OttIX has been running long-term BGP table analysis of its tables, using a tool courtesy of Geoff Huston.

• unicast BGP from the OttIX route server, where all ISPs announce their routes to the exchange.
• Multicast BGP routes reachable at OttIX.

Multicast Source Analysis

Since the beginning OttIX has been connected to the inter-domain Multicast part of the Internet. One of the ways it can demonstrate this and assist others in seeing if they are connected is to setup a number of beacons. These beacons transmit Multicast packets to the network and in turn listen and list fellow beacons heard on this network.

• IPv4 Multicast Beacon.
• IPv6 Multicast Beacon via M6Bone RP.
• IPv6 Multicast Beacon via Renater RP.

Multicast IPv4 Session Announcements

Real-time snapshots of inter-domain Multicast IPv4 session announcements are captured every minute. These snapshots permit OttIX to monitor sessions to see what Multicast sources are available from around the world, be they video or audio.

Web10g

Although not directly involved in the Web100 project, OttIX runs specialized kernels using Web10g technology. This optimizes the use of certain OttIX services, like its USENET news server and AdUni local mirror so that bulk data can be transmitted more efficiently. Incidentally, the onboard instrumentation allows OttIX to offer unique tools to aid in troubleshooting network problems.