Custom Routing over Specific Backbone Routers

[Avexrion]

This is a bit out of my expertise range, so this could be a completely "not possible/insane" request. However, as there are many degrees of connectivity to the internet, this has me wondering...

Right now, I am connecting to a datacenter in Chicago from North Georgia. This normally requires a route that goes from my ISP to Cogent TN, then Cogent IN, and then eventually goes to AT&T where the datacenter is connected to. There are also other stops that pile on latency as well.

However, I am curious as to if there is some form of packet "tagging" to manually force the packet to go to another network immediately off the bat. This new route, for instance, might instead go HE's ATL network, then right to HE's Chicago, followed by AT&T Chicago (possibly reducing latency.) Another option could be all AT&T from ATLN -> STLS -> CHCG.

The first hop is going to depend on my ISP's peering, but it would be great if I could manually plan the route out statically after them to the end destination.

Can this even be done? If so, would this require some sort of expensive "multiple agreements" thing with different Tier 1s, or is there some secret "route tweaking" packet option?

This almost sounds like some sort of odd internet voodoo or wizardry.

 

[toast0]

Theoretically there's an IP option for 'source routing', but I think that's generally disabled on the Internet, because it causes more harm than good.

You could try experimenting with IPv6 -- routing may be different / more advantageous; or you could try using an HE tunnel on either or both ends, if you find better routing through HE than your normal routing.

 

[Avexrion]

Theoretically there's an IP option for 'source routing', but I think that's generally disabled on the Internet, because it causes more harm than good.

You could try experimenting with IPv6 -- routing may be different / more advantageous; or you could try using an HE tunnel on either or both ends, if you find better routing through HE than your normal routing.

Looking at HE's map, this does look favorable as they have a direct line from ATL to Chicago. The only problem though is that my ISP has no IPv6 capability, and after some research, it turns out they peer only with CogentCo in Nashville.

I could vaguely see some latency reduction though if this was possible:
Me -> ISP
ISP -> CogentCo Nashville
CogentCo Nashville -> AT&T Nashville
AT&T Nashville -> AT&T Chicago (with other OC-768 hops.)

Of course, there are all sorts of combinations possible if time was taken to piece together a map. However, there is still nothing that says this is possible at all and if I should even bother.

 

[/usr/home]

You are at the mercy of your ISP. A IPv6 tunnel may add latency depending on where the tunnel IPv4 headend is.