The composable, programmable BGP Engine

The current version of Rotonda allows you to open BGP and BMP sessions andcollect incoming routes from many peers into an in-memory database, modeled asa Routing Information Base (RIB). It also supports importing routes from MRTfiles into this database. Conditions for accepting incoming routes and sendingmessages to log files or a MQTT stream can be created using filters with theRoto programming language. The RIB can be queried through an HTTP/JSONAPI.

Future versions of Rotonda will support an on-disk database, using externaldatasets in filters, reading routes from Kafka streams, and more.

Rotonda is and always will be free, open-source software.

Goals

Modularity

Rotonda applications are built by combining units into a pipeline throughwhich BGP data will flow. You can filter, and store the BGP data alongthe way, and create signals based on it to send to other applications. Weaim for units to be hot-swappable, i.e. they can be added and removed in arunning Rotonda application.

Rotonda offers units to create BGP and BMP sessions, Routing InformationBases (RIBs), and more.

Flexibility

The behaviour of the units can be modeled by using a small, fun programminglanguage calledRoto, that we created to combine flexibility andease-of-use. Right now,Roto is used to define filters that run inthe hot path of the Rotonda pipeline. It’s our goal to integrate filterdefinition, configuration syntax, and query syntax intoRoto scripts inone place. Modifying, versioning and provisioning of yourRoto scriptsshould be as straight forward as possible.

Tailored Performance

All data structures come with a trade-off between space and time, andRotonda is no exception. Rotonda aims to offer units that perform thesame task, but with different performance characteristics, so that you canoptimize for your needs, be it a high-volume, low latency installation or asmall installation in a constraint environment.

Observability

All Rotonda units will have their own finely-grained logging capabilities,and some have built-in queryable JSON API interfaces to give informationabout their current state and content through Rotonda’s built-in HTTPserver. Signals can be sent to other applications. Moreover, Rotonda aimsto offer true observability by allowing the user to trace BMP/BGP packetsstart-to-end through the whole pipeline.

Storage Persistence

By default a Rotonda application stores all the data that you want tocollect in memory. It should be possible to configure parts to persistto another storage location, such as files or a database. Whether you putRIBs to files or in a database, you can should still be able to query ittransparently withRoto.

External Data Sources

Roto filter units should be able to make decisions based on real-timeexternal data sources. Similarly filter units should be able to makedecisions based on data present in multiple RIBs. External data sourcescan be, among others, files, databases or even a RIB backed by an RTRconnection.

Robustness & Scalability

Multiple Rotonda instances should be able to synchronize or shard data viaan AVRO-based protocol, that we dubbedrotoro.

Security & Safety

Rotonda applications will be able to use data provided by the RPKI throughconnections with tools like Routinator and Krill. Besides that, Rotondasupports BGPsec out of the box. Again, no patching or recompiling required.

Open-source with professional support services

NLnet Labs offersprofessional support and consultancyservices with aservice-level agreement. Rotonda is liberally licensed under theMozilla Public License 2.0.