Kentik Market Intelligence

This article discusses the Kentik Market Intelligence feature of the Kentik portal.

About KMI

Kentik Market Intelligence (KMI) is a Service Provider workflow that uses the global routing table to classify the peering and transit relationships between Autonomous Systems (ASes) and to identify the providers, peers, and customers for any AS in any geography. KMI estimates the volume of IP space transited by ASes in different geographies and produces rankings based on that volume, thereby enabling users to compare ASes in various markets.

KMI also features Top Insights, which are automatic real-time notices about networks and markets. KMI insights are currently presented only within KMI rather than being part of the overall Kentik Insights engine. KMI insights identify interesting or anomalous events or trends that can deepen your understanding of the networks involved and the markets in which they operate.

KMI requires no setup or configuration to use, does not use flow data or synthetic test data, and covers ASes that both are and are not Kentik customers. Kentik draws public Routing Information Base (RIB) data feeds from the University of Oregon RouteViews project, computes scores from this information (see KMI Ranking Methodology), and publishes the results once daily on the Kentik Market Intelligence page (see KMI Page) as a set of tables in which ASes are ranked based on their score. A multi-tabbed details page for each AS (see AS Details Page) enables deeper drill-down into specific information for individual networks, including charts and tables in areas such as ranking, markets, customers, providers, and peers.

KMI Use Cases

KMI is oriented toward service providers that sell connectivity (a.k.a. Transit Providers), where it can be a valuable tool for a number of roles:

• Product Managers can use it to assess competition in existing and new markets.

• Marketing departments at leading providers can use it to validate their position in various markets.

• Sales and Product executives can use it to set goals in markets defined by customer type or by territory.

• Sales can use it to identify single-homed ASes to prospect and to determine existing providers for a given prospect.

KMI is also useful to networks such as content providers and large broadband providers, particularly for Peering Managers, who need to know all providers used by a given network:

• KMI can help identify networks with which it would be advantageous to peer.

• KMI can help determine ways to influence inbound path for a specific source network by using community routing to see them from another provider.

KMI Ranking Type

Kentik Market Intelligence ranks ASes in order of three main types of Kentik-computed KMI rankings (see KMI Ranking Methodology). The rankings displayed on the KMI Page or an AS Details Page take into account the current KMI Filter Bar settings on that page. The following types of rankings are shown:

• Customer Base: Ranked by the size of the overall customer base, estimated by determining how much IP address space a given AS transits relative to other ASes. Rankings are also available by category (see Customer Base Type).

• Customer Growth: Ranked by the change in overall customer base (gain/loss of prefixes) over the last 28 days.

• Peering: Ranked by the amount of IP address space sent to the AS over a settlement-free peering session.

On AS Details pages, the various ranking types are found on the following tabs:

• Overview: Customer Base (including categories).

• Rankings: Customer Base (including categories).

• Markets: Customer Base (including categories), Customer Growth, Peering.  

KMI Filter Bar

The filter bar is a set of controls that appears near the top of the tabs in the KMI module (on the KMI Page or on an individual AS Details Page). The controls in the bar allow you to define the scope of the information presented on the tab.

Depending on the tab (see Filter Controls by Tab), the filter bar may include the following individual controls:

• IP Address Family: A dropdown from which you can choose the IP version (v4 or v6) used for the evaluation of IP address space.

  Note: KMI scores are not directly comparable between IP versions. Kentik currently has no plans to enable an IP version setting of All.

• Geo Market: A dropdown from which you can choose the geographical scope of the KMI analysis presented on this page.

  Note: Kentik uses GeoIP to determine the origination country for the prefixes used to compute the ranking. The geomarket control allows you to restrict the study to any given continent/region/country.

• Ranking Type: A dropdown from which you can select a Rankings type (see KMI Ranking Type) by which to narrow the scope of the rankings in the tab's tables and charts. When narrowing by customers, the control allows you to choose a specific Customer Base Type.

• Comparison ASN: A dropdown from which you can select one of your organization’s ASNs (as entered in your Network Classification settings) to compare with the specified AS.

  Note: This control is only available on AS Details pages (see Filter Controls by Tab).

The results on each tab are filtered based on the above settings.

Note: Filter bar settings are retained from page to page, including from the landing page to a details page (and vice versa) as well as from one details page to another.

Customer Base Type

On the KMI landing page, and on several tabs of the AS Details pages, customer base rankings may be broken down further by category, which is chosen from the dropdown Ranking Type control in the KMI Filter Bar. In addition to all customers, the following categories are available:

• Retail: Networks that provide services (e.g., originate content) or whose end-users are consumers of services (e.g., ISPs or "eyeball" networks).

• Wholesale: Networks that connect retail networks to backbone networks.

• Backbone: Networks that carry high volumes of traffic between wholesale networks.

  

Filter Controls by Tab

The table below shows how the filter bar controls vary depending on the tab.

KMI Page

The Kentik Market Intelligence page includes the following main settings, controls, and information:

• Breadcrumbs (on subnav): Text indicating your current location on the Kentik portal.

• Share (on subnav): A button linking you to the Share dialog to share the current view (see Sharing via the Share Dialog(opens in new tab)).

• Actions (on subnav): A button that allows you to export and manage subscriptions to KMI exports (see KMI Actions Menu and KMI Export Types).

• Insights (on subnav): A button that toggles visibility of the right-side Top Insights drawer (see Top Insights) which contains market and ranking insights based on your Top Insights Configuration.

• Top insights: A pane, displayed in a drawer, that contains KMI insights (see Top Insights).

  Note: The drawer is open by default; to close it, click the Insights button.

• Favorite(on subnav): A icon indicates whether this item has been added as a favorite (see Portal Search Tabs(opens in new tab)). A solid yellow star indicates this page is a favorite, while an outline indicates it is not.

• Search by: A field into which you can enter an ASN or AS name to return a dropdown list of matching ASes. Click an AS in the resulting list to go to the AS Details Page for that AS.

• Configuration: A button that opens the Market Intelligence Configuration dialog, enabling you to select ASNs you own and operate (see Optional KMI Configuration).

• Filter Bar: A set of controls across the top of the chart that enable you to define the scope of the information presented on the page (see KMI Filter Bar).

• Ranking Over Time: A pane containing a chart and list that show, based on the current Filter Bar settings, the rankings of ASes in the category corresponding to the selected tab (see Ranking Over Time Pane).

• Latest Rankings: A pane containing a table listing top providers and a filter control that lets you narrow, by ranking, the range of providers that are shown (see Latest Rankings Pane).

KMI Actions Menu

This menu opens by clicking with the Actions button at the top right of the Kentik Market Intelligence page (in the subnav). It includes:

• Export: Opens a submenu from which you can choose to export one of two types of export in CSV format. (see KMI Export Types).
  

• Subscribe: Opens the Subscription Dialog, which enables you to subscribe to a KMI export, either by choosing an existing subscription or specifying a new one. The CSV export is then emailed to the specified address at the scheduled interval. Clicking Manage Subscriptions directs you to the Subscription page (see Subscription Tab UI).

• Unsubscribe (appears only when you have an active subscription): Opens the Unsubscribe dialog to remove an  subscription. Select the subscription to unsubscribe from the dropdown and click Unsubscribe.

KMI Export Types

You can export Kentik Market Intelligence (KMI) options are accessible from the KMI Actions Menu and export types for the KMI landing page include the following:

• Latest Rankings (.csv): Opens the Market Intelligence CSV Export dialog, which enables you to configure which rankings include in the export. The export will list ranked and ordered ASNs with their KMI score. You can then measure the gaps between each value.

• Top Global Insights (.csv): Automatically generates a sorted list of global insights ordered by magnitude (importance), on scale of 1 to 5. A notification will appear at the top of your screen when the export is complete.

Market Intelligence CSV Export dialog

The Market Intelligence CSV Export dialog enables you to configure export options for certain market intelligence data. This dialog varies depending on which view you access. You can access this dialog through the KMI page or through the AS Details page.

From the KMI page, this view appears when you generate a Latest Rankings export (see Generate a Latest Rankings Export).

Generate a Latest Rankings Export

To generate a Latest Rankings Export from the KMI page:

1. Click Actions » Export » Latest Rankings.

2. In the Market Intelligence CSV Export dialog, enter the following values:

   • Start Rank: The highest rank to include in the exported data.

   • End Rank: The lowest rank to include in the exported data.

3. Click Export to generate the report.

Ranking Over Time Pane

The Ranking Over Time pane shows a chart and a list, both of which are filtered based on the settings of the KMI Filter Bar:

• Ranking chart: A time-series chart showing the ranking of providers for each month of the last year.

• Ranking list: The current ranking (post-filter) of providers (see Ranking Over Time List).

  

The providers that are ranked in the chart and list depend on which mode is selected with the controls at the top right (above the list):

• Top 10 Providers (default): The list and chart show the current top-10 of the post-filter providers.

• Select Provider: The list and chart show five providers on either side (in terms of ranking) of the provider selected with the See +/-5 around dropdown. For example, if the ranking of the selected provider is 100, the other displayed providers will be those with rankings from 95 to 99 and 101 to 105. If no provider is selected, the displayed providers will be the current top-10 of the post-filter providers.

When you hover over a given location in the chart, a popup appears that shows what the ranking was for the month at that point in the time range.

Note: For information on how rankings are derived, see KMI Ranking Methodology.

Ranking Over Time List

Each row of the Ranking Over Time list includes the following elements (left to right):

• Color key: The color that represents this provider in the Ranking Over Time chart.

• Provider logo: The provider’s logo (if included).

• Name: The name of the provider’s owner/operator.

• ASN: A lozenge displaying the provider’s ASN, that when clicked, displays an KMI ASN Links Popup.

KMI ASN Links Popup

The KMI ASN Links popup appears when when you click the ASN lozenge in the Ranking Over Time List. It includes the following information and links (which open in the same tab):

• Registration Country: The country in which the ASN is registered.

• Kentik Market Intelligence: Opens the AS Details Page for that ASN.

• PeeringDB record: Opens the PeeringDB Info Tab of the Core Details page for this AS.

• ASN Traffic View: Opens the Traffic Tab of th Core Details page for this AS.

• View Traffic Costs: Opens the Traffic Costs Details Page for that AS.

  Note: Traffic cost access is managed through RBAC and may be restricted.

Clicking on any row of the Ranking Over Time list directs you to the AS Details Page for that provider.

Latest Rankings Pane

The Latest Rankings pane of the Kentik Market Intelligence page is made up of the Latest Rankings table and its associated range filter, which are covered in the topics below.

Latest Rankings Table

The Latest Rankings table shows the current ranking of providers, filtered based on the settings of the KMI Filter Bar. Click the row for any provider to go to that provider’s AS Details Page in KMI. The table includes the following columns (left to right):

• Ranking:

  • Rank: The ranking currently assigned to each AS, taking into account the page's current IP Address Family, Geo Market, and Ranking Type settings.

  • Change: The change in rank since the previous ranking (currently daily).

• Provider:

  • Logo: The provider’s logo.

  • Name: The name of the provider's owner/operator.

  • ASN: A lozenge giving the provider’s ASN. Click the lozenge to open a popup that includes the AS’s country of registration and links to AS-related destinations in Kentik (see ASN in Ranking Over Time List).

• % of top score:

  • Percentage: This provider's score as a percentage of the score of the top-ranked provider listed in the table.

  • Bar chart: A horizontal bar chart illustrating this provider's score percentage.

Note: For information on how rankings are derived, see KMI Ranking Methodology.

Latest Rankings Range Filter

The range filter is a blue bar that appears above the Latest Rankings table. A series of dots is displayed under the bar, with top-ranked providers represented as individual dots and the remaining providers, whose scores are too close to be represented individually, represented with one large dot. The position of each dot from left to right is proportional to the corresponding provider's % of top score as shown in the table. Hovering over a dot opens a popup that shows you the provider(s) and its percentage of the top score.

The range control has two handles, which appear by default at the far left and right ends of the bar. Dragging these handles has the following effect on which providers are listed in the table:

• Sliding the left handle to the right trims the highest-ranked providers from the top of the table.

• Sliding the right handle to the left trims the lowest-ranked providers from the bottom of the table.

Optional KMI Configuration

While you can run KMI out-of-the-box, additional value can be obtained by configuring your own ASNs in KMI to compare yourself to any network you may be investigating.

Clicking on the Configuration button launches the Market Intelligence Configuration dialog. This dialog allows you to optionally configure ASNs you own and operate. The KMI workflow then shows the comparative data for these ASNs against any others in that workflow.

Under My ASNs, you'll see a list of the ASNs that you have defined in Settings » Network Classification as being part of your network. Select all of these ASNs that you want KMI to consider as part of your network. The ASNs will be indicated as yours in tables and will be included in comparisons involving your network as a filter (see Filter Controls by Tab).

Notes:

• You must have an Administrator or Super Administrator User Level to configure these settings.

• To change the ASNs that are available to designate as part of your network, change your Network Classification settings