[sdnog] Can not get the real ASNs using traceroute -a

[Sara Alamin]

Hello sdnog community.
hope you all are safe and well.

Why when I do “traceroute -a”  (-a option means get the ASN  for each hop encountered) I don’t get the real ASNs for each hop? I thought this will check each IP address and which ASN this IP address belongs to, using WHOIS database.

 for example, I’ve done this test from my home’ network using CANAR ISP:


$ traceroute -a 9.9.9.9
traceroute to 9.9.9.9 (9.9.9.9), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  [AS0] 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  1.535 ms  1.084 ms  1.030 ms
 2  [AS37313] 197.254.230.177 (197.254.230.177)  15.779 ms  12.520 ms  16.434 ms
 3  [AS37313] 197.254.209.113 (197.254.209.113)  13.440 ms  15.927 ms  15.327 ms
 4  [AS37313] 197.254.209.42 (197.254.209.42)  16.924 ms  12.266 ms  14.889 ms
 5  [AS37313] 197.254.209.61 (197.254.209.61)  15.133 ms  17.668 ms  14.745 ms
 6  [AS204523] 196.223.20.100 (196.223.20.100)  24.771 ms  22.263 ms  19.686 ms
 7  [AS19281] dns9.quad9.net (9.9.9.9)  20.440 ms !Z  22.198 ms !Z  24.928 ms !Z

Hop #2 to #5 : these IPs belong to Canar Telecom, but [AS37313] this is not their ASN. this belongs to Ghana Government (Ministry of Communications).

Hop#6 :  this is SIXP IP address , and also this is not their ASN. this is Expresso Telecom Group

Hop#7:  this is correct AS19281 is quad9.net.

I have tested this from different ISP (ZAIN) and I got the same issue:

$ traceroute -a 9.9.9.9
traceroute to 9.9.9.9 (9.9.9.9), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  * * *
 2  * * *
 3  [AS0] 10.0.82.225 (10.0.82.225)  45.973 ms  28.944 ms  79.895 ms
 4  [AS0] 10.0.79.98 (10.0.79.98)  30.131 ms  33.151 ms  29.730 ms
 5  [AS0] 10.0.76.46 (10.0.76.46)  38.488 ms  25.967 ms  29.800 ms
 6  * * *
 7  [AS204523] 196.223.20.100 (196.223.20.100)  45.545 ms  43.290 ms  31.900 ms
 8  [AS19281] dns9.quad9.net (9.9.9.9)  39.034 ms !Z  26.836 ms !Z  33.402 ms !Z


why this happen? and how can be fixed?

Thank you!

--Sara Alamin--