Citation: Mastilak, L.; Helebrandt, P.;
Galinski, M.; Kotuliak, I. Secure
Inter-Domain Routing Based on
Blockchain: A Comprehensive
Survey. Sensors 2022, 22, 1437.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22041437
Academic Editors: Alexios Mylonas
and Nikolaos Pitropakis
Received: 24 January 2022
Accepted: 9 February 2022
Published: 13 February 2022
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Review
Secure Inter-Domain Routing Based on Blockchain:
A Comprehensive Survey
Lukas Mastilak * , Pavol Helebrandt , Marek Galinski and Ivan Kotuliak
Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Ilkovicova 2,
842 16 Bratislava, Slovakia; pavol.helebrandt@stuba.sk (P.H.); marek.galinski@stuba.sk (M.G.);
ivan.kotuliak@stuba.sk (I.K.)
* Correspondence: lukas.mastilak@stuba.sk; Tel.: +421-2-2102-2204
Abstract:
The whole Internet consists of thousands of autonomous systems that transfer data with
one another. The BGP plays a significant role in routing, but its behaviour is essentially naive, trusting
neighbours without authenticating advertised IP prefixes. This is the main reason why BGP endures
various path manipulation attacks. Recently, conventional methods for securing BGP have been
implemented, i.e., BGPSec with RPKI. However, these approaches are centralised with a single point
of failure that may be compromised, invalidating the whole security mechanism. There have been
multiple decentralised projects dealing with various mechanisms, mostly built on Ethereum and
blockchain networks. Some with ambition to strengthen existing centralised mechanisms, others
to replace them. In this article, we present the first comprehensive survey on blockchain solutions
to enforce BGP security, with complex explanations of their contributions and a comparison with
different aspects. We explain how blockchain technology can provide an alternative to prevent the
false origin of IP prefixes or hijacking AS paths. Moreover, we describe new blockchain-based attacks
that BGP would face after the inclusion of blockchain into the inter-domain routing. Finally, we
answer the defined research questions and discuss the potential open issues for further study.
Keywords: inter-domain routing; border gateway protocol; network security; blockchain
1. Introduction
The whole Internet consists of thousands of networks called autonomous systems.
The data are transferred between them through paths that are determined by the routing
process. A single administrative entity independently manages the autonomous system.
The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) enables the exchange of routing information among
the autonomous systems to create paths for transferring data
[1]
. This process is called
inter-domain routing.
In recent years, the distributed ledger called blockchain has became a popular tech-
nology thanks to Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It introduced peer-to-peer payments in the
digital world. Since then, hundreds of projects have been built on blockchain, for example,
Ethereum that brought smart contract (SC), the self-executing code with terms of the agree-
ment between a sender and a receiver. Generally, before we decide to deploy blockchain
technology, we should meet the following assumptions [2]:
• The data will be shared among untrusted participants;
• The participants will maintain a blockchain system, not a central authority;
• The participants will require public and immutable proof for the performed transactions.
Inter-domain routing satisfies those assumptions for using blockchain. There are
autonomous systems that do not trust each other, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) offers
almost no authentication of the content of received BGP messages, and the deployment of
Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) is progressing relatively slowly. Autonomous
systems often fight against attacks, such as BGP hijacking or route leaks, that affect the
Sensors 2022, 22, 1437. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22041437 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
