Stale Objects
Table of contents
Explanation
Please note : When an object is marked as stale, it has no impact on how it is queried. The stale mark is just for your information only.
What are Stale and Suspected Stale route objects?
Within a maintainer's Route and Route6 administration pages, you may see certain objects marked with a Suspected Stale (yellow) or Stale (orange) badge.
RADb evaluates each Prefix/Origin pair for accuracy based on a methodology derived from the research work by Khan et al.
To summarize the Prefix/Origin Match methodology and criteria (the following Prefix/Origin Match types reference an arbitrary RADb pair (pfx1, as1) and an arbitrary BGP pair (pfx2, as2)):
- Direct Match - For a direct match to occur, as1 = as2 and pfx1 = pfx2 or px1 is a subnet or supernet of pfx2
- Maintainer Match - For a maintainer match to occur, as1 != as2, but the AUT-NUM objects for as1 and as2 or the other route objects for as1 and as2 share exactly one maIntainer in common. This should account for proxy-registration. Further, pfx1 = pfx2 or pfx1 is a subnet or supernet of pfx2.
- AS Link Match - For an AS Link match to occur, as1 != as2, but there exists an IPv4 "link" between these autonomous systems based on CAIDA datasets . Further, pfx1 = pfx2 or pfx1 is a subnet or supernet of pfx2.
A route object is deemed as stale if it doesn't meet any of the three criteria defined above.
To determine a level of staleness (yellow or orange) the route object is then given a quality score based on a variety of factors, including:
- RIR validation status (i.e., is the ASN the legitimate owner of the routing object based on RIR records?)
- Age of "staleness" (i.e., how long has this route object been reported as "stale"?)
- Mistaken registration of bogons
- Reputation (as scored against a variety of trusted, 3rd-party data sources)
Any object in Stale status is potentially in violation of our terms of services, should be reviewed by your team, and deleted if necessary.
If you feel that our methodology misclassified your objects, then please contact us.
To help us troubleshoot, please provide BGP and other supporting data that demonstrate that your objects are not stale.
Need Assistance?
If you have technical questions or need help related to Merit RADb, please contact RADb Support.