🌍

BGP Anycast for Global Services

Complex

Free preview · 2 of 5 steps

Anycast: same IP, many locations

BGP anycast advertises the same IP prefix from dozens or hundreds of geographic locations simultaneously. The internet's BGP routers select the 'best' path — which typically means the nearest location by AS-path length.

Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1, Google's 8.8.8.8, and all DNS root servers use anycast. A user in Frankfurt and a user in Tokyo both send packets to 1.1.1.1 — they reach completely different physical servers automatically.

Packets in motion — click to inspect:

1 / 2

Space to play/pause · ← → to step