BGP Data is delivered as an optional add-on to Noction Flow Analyzer.
NFA overcomes the limitation of BGP support in traditional NetFlow. It employs a collection of full BGP data from BGP tables of edge routers, extracting the required BGP attributes. NFA extracts BGP attributes such as AS_PATH and matches the obtained data with a corresponding flow record from Flow DB tables. This enables NFA to see and filter on the full BGP path, not just the next hop, first three or last three AS numbers.
Enabling BGP data will require you to establish a BGP session between at least one of your routers and NFA.
2.3.1 BGP Report #
Use the BGP Report section to see BGP data obtained from your devices. The BGP Route advertisements and withdrawals can now be visualized both in a graph and table mode.
Filter, group, and search data according to your needs. Create and add custom widgets to any of your dashboards.
2.3.2 BGP Sankey Diagram #
NFA offers a great way to visualize the Internet traffic routing criteria along with traffic volume using a Sankey type diagram. Its extensive filtering capabilities can provide you with a clear picture of the paths your traffic is taking, the countries regions or cities you traffic originates and terminates in, traffic volume distribution by different paths, best potential new peering candidates, and a lot more.
The list of available filters is listed below:
- • Time
- • Source and Destination Address
- • Source and Destination Port
- • Source and Destination VLAN
- • Source and Destination Mask
- • Source and Destination AS Number
- • Source and Destination AS Path
- • Source and Destination AS Path Length
- • Source and Destination Country
- • Source and Destination City
- • Source and Destination L2 MAC Address
- • MPLS Top Label to Top Label 9
- • MPLS Top Label Type
- • MPLS Top Label IPv4 Address
- • MPLS Top Label IPv6 Address
- • MPLS Top Label Prefix Length
- • MPLS VPN Route Distinguisher
- • MPLS Top Label TTL
- • MPLS Label Stack Length
- • MPLS Label Stack Depth
- • MPLS Top Label Exp
- • L3 IP TTL
- • L3 IP min TTL
- • L3 IP max TTL
- • L3 IP Total Length
- • L3 IP min Total Length
- • L3 IP max Total Length
- • BGP Community
- • TOS – Type of Service
- • Protocol
- • Input Interface
- • Output Interface
- • Next Hop Address
- • Pseudowire ID
- • Pseudowire Type
- • Pseudowire Control Word
- • BGP Local Preference
- • BGP MED
- • Exporter Address
- • Exporter ID
- • TCP Flag
- • Flow Role
- • Source and Destination AS Path
- • Source and Destination AS Path Length
- • Exporter AS
- • L2 Ethernet Type
- • Application Name
- • Application Name Custom Group
- • Application Name Length
- • Source and Destination FQDN Address
| Click “Advanced Options” to increase/decrease the number of BGP paths visible on the diagram, show/hide the AS path prepends as well as the upstream/downstream ASNs info. Another option allows you to select a specific unit prefix, ensuring that the data displayed in both the graph and table is consistently presented with your chosen unit prefix. By default, the unit prefix is set to “Auto.” However, you can choose from the following options: auto, kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, and exa. |  |
2.3.3 Looking Glass #
The Looking Glass section is available under BGP Data > Looking Glass and provides a set of network diagnostic and BGP visibility tools directly within the NFA interface.
Query Types
The panel supports four query types, selectable via the Query Type toggle at the top of the page:
Ping: Runs an ICMP ping to a specified target address to verify basic reachability.
Traceroute: Performs a traceroute to a target address, displaying the network path hop by hop.
BGP Data: Queries NFA’s internal BGP tables for a given prefix. Supports two lookup modes:
- • Exact match: Returns results only for the exact prefix specified.
- • More-specific prefixes: When enabled via the toggle, returns the queried prefix along with all more-specific prefixes found in the BGP table.
BGP History: Retrieves historical BGP route events for a given prefix over a selected timeframe. Results are displayed in the Prefix BGP History table, which includes the following columns: Time, Prefix, Next-Hop, Origin, MED, LocalPref, AS Path, and BGP Communities.
Running a Query:
- 1. Select the desired Query Type.
- 2. Enter the target address or Prefix in the input field on the right.
- 3. For BGP History queries, optionally enable More specific prefixes and select a Timeframe from the dropdown (e.g., Last 4 hours).
- 4. Click RUN to execute your query and view the results.
