This article covers Kentik’s Data Explorer dimensions related to traffic routing.
Note: As of May 1st, 2025, the Query SQL Method has been deprecated and is no longer supported.
IP & BGP Routing
The IP & BGP Routing dimensions category is used to filter or group-by on IP addresses (IPv4 or IPv6), protocol (e.g., TCP or UDP), TCP flags, and ToS, as well as routing information including source and destination AS, AS path, AS names, community, prefixes, and hops.
IP Info Dimensions
Dimensions related to IP properties:
Dimension name (portal) | Description | Type: | Direction: KDE name(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
IP/CIDR | The source/destination IP address, either IPv4 or IPv6, of the flow. | string | Src/Dst: |
Site by IP | The site name for the source/destination IP, e.g., “acme_dfw1”. | string Native | Src/Dst:
|
Site Type by IP | The site type for the source/destination IP, e.g., “Cloud”. | string Native | Src/Dst:
|
Port Number | Layer 4 source/destination port (e.g., 80, 443).
| integer | Src/Dst: |
Protocol | The number of the protocol. See Wikipedia's List of IP Protocol Numbers. | integer | Non-directional: |
Protocol Name | The name of the protocol followed by the corresponding protocol number in parentheses, e.g., TCP (6). In SQL, supports case-insensitive equality and IN matching. | string | Non-directional: |
INET Family | The address family of the flow, either 4 (IPv4) or 6 (IPv6). | integer | Non-directional: |
DSCP | A DSCP (differentiated services code point) value from the DS field in a packet's IP header, which classifies the packet's contents to enable differentiated QoS. | integer | Non-directional: |
ToS | An 8-bit value, typically made up of a six-bit Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) field and a two-bit Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) field. | integer | Non-directional: |
BGP Dimensions
Dimensions related to BGP properties (see About Kentik BGP):
Dimension name (portal) | Description | Type: | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
Route Prefix + LEN | The BGP table prefix concatenated with the prefix length for the source/destination IP of the flow. | string Native | Src/Dst:
|
Route Prefix | The BGP table prefix, either IPv4 or IPv6, that contains the source/destination IP of the flow. | string | Src/Dst: |
Route LEN | The BGP prefix length for the source/destination IP of the flow. | integer | Src/Dst: |
AS Number | The origin ASN associated with the source/destination IP of the flow. | bigint | Src/Dst: |
AS Name | The name associated with AS Number. | string | Src/Dst: |
AS Group | A label assigned to a collection of ASes (see About AS Groups). | string Virtual | Src/Dst: |
Next Hop IP/CIDR | The BGP next-hop IP address, either IPv4 or IPv6, for the source/destination IP of the flow (see About BGP). | string | Src/Dst: |
Next Hop AS Number | The ASN in the first position of the AS_PATH for the source IP of the flow (see About BGP). | integer | Src/Dst: |
Next Hop AS Name | Name of Next Hop AS Number | string | Src/Dst: |
2nd Hop AS Number | The ASN in the second position of the AS_PATH for the source/destination IP of the flow (see About BGP). | integer | Src/Dst: |
2nd Hop AS Name | Name of 2nd Hop AS Number. | string | Src/Dst: |
3rd Hop AS Number | The ASN in the third position of the AS_PATH for the source/destination IP of the flow (see About BGP). | integer | Src/Dst: |
3rd Hop AS Name | Name of 3rd Hop AS Number. | string | Src/Dst: |
AS Path | The BGP ASPATH for the flow’s source/destination IP (see About BGP). | string | Src/Dst: |
BGP Community | The set of BGP communities associated with the flow’s source/destination IP (see About BGP). | string | Src/Dst: |
BGP Extended Community | A set of BGP communities used to extend the standard BGP Community attribute, often to carry more specific routing information like specific route targets or encapsulation details (e.g., “RT:65000:1000”) | string Native | Src/Dst:
|
BGP Large Community | A set of BGP communities designed to provide a larger format than the standard community, typically used to carry 96-bit values for Autonomous System (AS) numbers and local values. | string Native | Src/Dst:
|
BGP Origin | The BGP path attribute that indicates the origin of the route, i.e. how the route was injected into BGP (e.g., “IGP” ). | string | Src/Dst:
|
RPKI Validation Status | The RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure; see RPKI Documentation) status of a prefix in a BGP-advertised route, which indicates whether the route would be used or dropped if the router were configured to enforce strict route validation. | string | Dst: |
RPKI Quick Status | Provides a simplified view of RPKI status, enabling easier determination of the action to take on the prefix. | string | Dst: |
VRF Dimensions
Dimensions related to VRF properties:
Dimension name (portal) | Description | Type: | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
VRF Name | The locally significant name of the VRF via which this flow was routed (input or output).
| string | Src/Dst: |
VRF Route Distinguisher | Uniquely identifies the VRF via which this flow was routed (input or output). | string | Src/Dst: |
VRF Route Target | Uniquely identifies a shared route (used by multiple VRFs) via which this flow was routed (input or output). | string | Src/Dst: |
VRF Extended Route Distinguisher | An encoding of the VRF route distinguisher (for Kentik internal use only). | integer | Src/Dst: |
Per-flow Metrics
These metrics are available as dimensions that can be used to filter or group-by based on stats related to the bytes and packets of the flow:
Dimension name (portal) | Description | Type: | Direction: |
|---|---|---|---|
Packet Size | Packet size of flow (bytes/packet). | integer | Non-directional:
|
Packet Size (nearest 100) | Packet size of flow (bytes/packets) rounded down to the nearest multiple of 100. | integer | Non-directional: |
Sampling Rate * 100 | The rate at which traffic was sampled when flow was collected (see Flow Sampling). | integer | Non-directional: |
TCP Performance Dimensions
Dimensions related to TCP retransmission and windowing, which indicate network and application performance issues:
Dimension name (portal) |
|---|
MPLS Router Dimensions
The following table shows the MPLS-router-related dimensions that may be used for filtering or group-by in queries.
Did You Know?: Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing scheme for network data that enables network operators to define label-switched paths that let routers move packets within the network without consulting a routing table at each hop (see Using MPLS).
Dimension name (portal) | Description | Type: | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
MPLS Forwarding Type | This field denotes the label distribution scheme used by the router to forward the MPLS traffic. Currently only Cisco ASR devices export this field. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Forwarding Address | The IP address of the destination PE (provider edge) router where the flow will exit the MPLS domain before re-entering standard IP forwarding domains. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Forwarding Address Prefix Length | The prefix length for the destination Forwarding Address of the flow. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 1 | The value of the top label assigned to the flow. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 1 EXP | The value of the experimental bits assigned to the flow. Typically, this is used to map IP-based Quality of Service (QoS) markings into MPLS domains so that routers can apply appropriate forwarding policies to MPLS flows. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 2 | The value of the second label assigned to the flow. | integer UDR | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 2 EXP | The value of the experimental bits assigned to the flow. Typically, this is used to map IP-based Quality of Service (QoS) markings into MPLS domains so that routers can apply appropriate forwarding policies to MPLS flows. | integer | Non-directional |
Forwarding Status | The two-bit forwarding status of the flow and associated six-bit reason code or flag. This dimension represents IPFIX entity 89 (IANA). | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 3 | The value of the third label assigned to the flow. | integer | Non-directional |
MPLS Label 3 EXP | The value of the experimental bits assigned to the flow. Typically, this is used to map IP-based Quality of Service (QoS) markings into MPLS domains so that routers can apply appropriate forwarding policies to MPLS flows. | integer | Non-directional |

