Nigeria Experiences BGP Control Plane Disruption Over 31-Hour Period

Nigeria’s internet routing infrastructure experienced a significant control plane disruption beginning on August 9, lasting for approximately 31 hours. The event, centered on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) visibility, was recorded as ending by 00:30 UTC on August 11.

Technical Details

The primary affected metric was the BGP control plane signal, which registered a severity score of 1,941. This signal measures the visibility of network prefixes in global routing tables, indicating potential issues with route announcements or withdrawals. The disruption period was recorded from 17:15 UTC on August 9 to 00:30 UTC on August 11.

During the event, the measured number of visible BGP prefixes dropped by approximately 1% from its peak. Concurrent measurements of other connectivity indicators showed varied performance: aggregate traffic levels, measured by the gtr-norm signal, saw a 12% drop from its peak, while a separate backscatter measurement proxy, merit-nt, recorded a more substantial 42% decline from its observed maximum.

Reported Cause

The cause of the routing disruption has not been publicly attributed.

Network connectivity was reported as restored by the end of the observation window.