STAR TAP℠ Router Overview

The STAR TAP Router facilitates peering among the 20 National Research Networks (NRNs) connected to STAR TAP. This Router is a resource, enabling STAR TAP-connected networks to exchange routes and traffic with other STAR TAP-connected networks with whom they do not peer directly.

The STAR TAP Router does not have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP); i.e., it is AUP free. However, route filters are used to prevent intra-European and intra-Asian traffic via STAR TAP; that is:

1. North American networks get European and Asian routes
2. European networks get North American and Asian routes
3. Asian networks get North American and European routes

Direct peering between networks that exchange large amounts of traffic or run critical applications is encouraged; to set up direct peering sessions, see STAR TAP Points of Contact. The STAR TAP Router is meant to complement those peering sessions, not replace them.

NOTE: The National Research Networks (NRNs) currently peering with the STAR TAP Router are indicated in the above mentioned Points of Contact table. Due to individual policy restrictions, the vBNS, Abilene, and ESnet are NOT currently planning to peer with the STAR TAP Router. We suggest STAR TAP participants peer directly with these three networks.

STAR TAP Routing Policy Implementation Details

Incoming routes are tagged with BGP community values to simplify the administration of the routing policy. Community values are set additively for a given prefix as follows:

AS10764:910	assigned to routes received from North America
AS10764:911	assigned to routes received from Canada
AS10764:920	assigned to routes received from Asia Pacific
AS10764:930	assigned to routes received from Europe
AS10764:940	assigned to routes received from US National Research Networks (Abilene, vBNS, ESnet)
AS10764:950	assigned to routes received from China
AS10764:960	assigned to routes received from Russia
AS10764:970	assigned to routes received from the Middle East

Outgoing routes are filtered based on BGP community values as follows:

AS10764:910	announced to APAN, Asia, Canada, China, Europe, Middle East and Russia
AS10764:920	announced to Canada, China, Europe, Middle East, North America and Russia
AS10764:930	announced to APAN, Asia, Canada, China, North America and Russia
AS10764:950	announced to APAN, Asia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, North America and Russia
AS10764:960	announced to APAN, Asia, Canada, China, Europe, Middle East and North America
AS10764:970	announced to APAN, Asia, Canada, China, North America and Russia

AS-Macros have been defined describing which ASNs are announced:

AS-STARTAPAP	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to Asia Pacific peers (excluding APAN).
AS-STARTAPEU	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to European peers.
AS-STARTAPNA	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to North American peers (excluding Abilene, ESnet and vBNS).
AS-STARTAPCA	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to Canadian peers.
AS-STARTAPCN	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to China peers.
AS-STARTAPRU	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to Russian peers.
AS-STARTAPME	describes the policy STARTAP will announce to Middle East peers.