Amazon.com, Inc.
External network route advertisement validation

Abstract:

Probe packets are transmitted from a source network to an external network to validate that the external network is accepting network prefix announcements to be loaded into forwarding tables of routers of the external network to ensure network connectivity. The network prefix announcements can be Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) announcements transmitted from the source network to the external network during a BGP peering session. After announcing a network prefix announcement, the source network can transmit a probe packet having a destination address in a range associated with the announced network prefix to the external network. An edge router of the source network can monitor incoming packets using an ingress Access Control List (ACL) to detect whether the probe packet returns, and if so, validate that the network prefix announcement was successful. If the probe packet does not return, an alert can be generated and/or remedial actions can be taken.