In preparation for our upcoming annual LACNIC event, LACNIC 45, to be held in Panama, we examined the current landscape of the Internet in the country based on several sources of information consolidated under Internet Measurements by Country*.
This report presents key indicators on the state of the Internet in Panama, including BGP advertisements, RIPE Atlas platform coverage, MANRS implementation, as well as IPv6 and RPKI adoption. This data provides a comprehensive view of Internet performance in the country and seeks to support decisions aimed at strengthening Internet infrastructure and resilience.
BGP Advertisements
The image on the left shows the percentage of advertised ASNs by type. In BGP, advertised ASNs can be classified into three types:
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Origin ASNs: ASNs that advertise prefixes (blue)
Transit ASNs: ASNs that connect to the origin ASN within a country (green)
Upstream ASNs: ASNs that provide connectivity to another country (red)
The chart on the right shows the percentage of advertised IPv4 prefixes (in blue) and advertised IPv6 prefixes (in red). It is worth noting that the percentage of advertised IPv6 addresses (10.4%) has increased by less than 2% since LACNIC 41, an event also held in Panama in May 2024.
Another interesting number is the average AS PATH length, which in the case of Panama is 4.87. Meanwhile, the average AS PATH lengths for Panama’s neighboring countries are as follows:
Costa Rica: 4.74
Colombia: 6.21
DNS
There are several aspects to consider regarding DNS implementation. First, we can observe the response times from Panama to the root servers. It should be noted that Panama hosts five instances of root servers D, E, I, K, and F. It is also interesting to observe response times to the LACTLD anycast cloud. These two aspects are shown in the following graphs.
Origin ASNs: ASNs that advertise prefixes (blue)
Transit ASNs: ASNs that connect to the origin ASN within a country (green)
Upstream ASNs: ASNs that provide connectivity to another country (red)
The chart on the right shows the percentage of advertised IPv4 prefixes (in blue) and advertised IPv6 prefixes (in red). It is worth noting that the percentage of advertised IPv6 addresses (10.4%) has increased by less than 2% since LACNIC 41, an event also held in Panama in May 2024.
Another interesting number is the average AS PATH length, which in the case of Panama is 4.87. Meanwhile, the average AS PATH lengths for Panama’s neighboring countries are as follows:
Costa Rica: 4.74
Colombia: 6.21
DNS
There are several aspects to consider regarding DNS implementation. First, we can observe the response times from Panama to the root servers. It should be noted that Panama hosts five instances of root servers D, E, I, K, and F. It is also interesting to observe response times to the LACTLD anycast cloud. These two aspects are shown in the following graphs.
RIPE Atlas
RIPE Atlas is an open, free Internet measurement platform. It has extensive capacity for measuring latencies, traceroutes, DNS, HTTP, NTP, and more. It relies on community participation to host probes and achieve sufficient coverage for the collection of complete and impartial data.
In Panama, there are currently 21 connected probes, one of which is an anchor installed at Intered. These probes are primarily concentrated in Panama City and the surrounding area.
There is still significant room for improvement in probe coverage in Panama to be able to achieve a more accurate view of the country’s connectivity.
Below we have included a list of networks where we suggest probes should be installed. In addition to network coverage, geographic distribution of the probes should also be considered. If your network is on the list, don’t hesitate to contact us at atlas-lac@lacnic.net to discuss the matter and receive support for installing the probe.
MANRS
Mutually Agreed Standards for Routing Security (MANRS) is an initiative aimed at significantly enhancing the security and resilience of the global Internet routing system. It promotes the adoption of well-established industry best practices and technological solutions by those running BGP to address the most common threats.
MANRS readiness indicates how well MANRS Actions are implemented. The table below shows the degree of readiness for each metric in Panama:
As the graph shows, Panama has 100% filtering, which significantly contributes to network security and resilience.
In terms of RPKI, MANRS assesses, on the one hand, the percentage of routes advertised by an autonomous system that are not covered by any ROA (in other words, prefixes that have not been registered), and on the other hand, the percentage of routes that are invalid because of an existing ROA. Because RPKI considers both the lack of registration and the presence of incorrect ROAs that invalidate legitimate advertisements, the final calculation adjusts the score by penalizing invalid routes by applying a formula that significantly reduces the weight of this second factor to reflect its greater impact on overall validation.
Based on this calculation, Panama has a MANRS readiness of 68.1%, which is slightly below that of Costa Rica (76.3%). In contrast, the percentage of routes registered in the IRR is 91.5%, which is a very good percentage.
IPv6 Adoption
Panama’s IPv6 adoption rate is currently just 6%. As the image shows, this number is well below the regional average.
IPv6 deployment to end users in Panama remains significantly behind, not only compared to the Central American average (50.00%), but also well below nearby countries such as Colombia (21.70%) and Costa Rica (14.06%). Additionally, this deployment has exhibited marked fluctuations, with periods of progress and setbacks, reflecting instability rather than a sustained growth trajectory, unlike the trend observed in other countries in the region.
RPKI
By using RPKI, operators in the region can check whether an autonomous system is authorized to advertise a specific range of prefixes. This allows us to validate that BGP advertisements are not being made by unauthorized autonomous systems and that Internet traffic is not being diverted along the way.
Because RPKI deployment is not yet universal, validation can have varied results. Prefixes that appear as “valid” are protected by RPKI and we can be sure they can be trusted. Those that appear as “not found” are not yet protected by RPKI. “Invalid” is used for incorrect or malicious advertisements.
In the case of Panama, the percentage of prefixes covered by RPKI ROAs is 91.8%.
The image below was taken from the FORT Monitor Project and shows the percentage of valid and invalid IPv4 Prefix/Origin AS pairs covered by RPKI ROAs by country. As RPKI deployment progresses, the number of unprotected (not found) prefixes will decrease and the accuracy with which invalid prefixes are identified will increase.
Conclusion
This review of various aspects of the Internet in Panama shows both which efforts are on the right track and those areas where additional work is required.
To continue measuring many of these aspects, among other tools, further deployment of RIPE Atlas is needed in Panama. Coverage is currently concentrated in Panama City, while several large networks still have little or no coverage.
While RPKI represents a strength for Panama, IPv6 is the area that remains critical and requires the most work, as it is currently well below the average for Central America and the LACNIC region in general.
We believe it is necessary to work on IPv6 adoption in access networks to allow end users to have native IPv6 and to ensure that Panama’s Internet does not fall behind other countries in the region.
LACNIC 45
Several activities related to routing security and IPv6 have been planned for the event:
We would also like to highlight the session on Access Networks in Panama: The Pending Step Towards IPv6, which will be held on Tuesday 26 May. This activity will attempt to understand why the country lags behind Central America and neighboring countries, and to create a space for discussing challenges and opportunities for promoting a more extensive deployment that is both stable and sustainable.
For more information about the program and to register for the event, click on the following link https://lacnic45.lacnic.net/.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LACNIC.
