Bridging Communities - HomeNOC's New PoP in Taiwan

These are slides for a presentation we gave at TWNOG 7.0.

HomeNOC (AS59105) is a Japan-based non-profit community providing young engineers with a production-grade environment for BGP operations and AS management. This talk presents our new PoP in Taipei, Taiwan — covering infrastructure design, Japan–Taiwan backbone interconnection via EtherIP tunnels, and BGP connectivity — and discusses how it bridges the Japanese and Taiwanese networking communities.

Transcript

1. Bridging Communities - HomeNOC's New PoP in Taiwan - Tomoki Yoshikawa AS59105 Home NOC Operators Group marokiki@homenoc.ad.jp TWNOG 7.0 2026/5/15
2. Introduction Tomoki Yoshikawa Affiliation • Master's student at Kyoto University • Kyoto University Micro Computer Club (AS59128) • A university club for all things computing • Members work on games, music, web apps, and NW • I installed a 36U server rack in the clubhouse (→) • Home NOC Operators' Group (AS59105) • A non-profit community for learning network operations • Peering and AS operations Hobbies • Fishing, anime, baseball Kyoto, Uji 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 2
3. Outline • Background • Who We Are: HomeNOC (AS59105) • Network Architecture & BGP Design • Activities, Achievements & Learning/Research ASN • New Taiwan PoP: Design, Connectivity & Expectations • Conclusion 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 3
4. Challenges in Japan’s Network field Shortage of young NW engineers • The popularity of applications and cloud services is increasing • However, the demand for NW is also growing • AI Platform, Streaming Service, …… Few opportunities to learn operations in a production environment • Many people are interested in the NW technology, but … • Even if they have NW knowledge, • No environment to use them • Even if they have technical skills, • No connection points • They do not know how to obtain Internet resources such as ASN or IP addresses • →I think these problems are reducing interest in the NW/Internet field → For them, We aim to provide a playground of NW 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 4
5. Outline • Background • Who We Are: HomeNOC (AS59105) • Network Architecture & BGP Design • Activities, Achievements & Learning/Research ASN • New Taiwan PoP: Design, Connectivity & Expectations • Conclusion 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 5
6. Home NOC Operators’ Group 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 6 • We are a research network and nonprofit organization for learning Internet-related network technologies since 2015. • Members can use IP transit and Internet access using our IP addresses for a low membership fee (free for students). • We have over 220 members and an average of about 1Gbps of balanced traffic. • We contribute to the education of young engineers and to the Internet community.
7. Outline • Background • Who We Are: HomeNOC (AS59105) • Network Architecture & BGP Design • Activities, Achievements & Learning/Research ASN • New Taiwan PoP: Design, Connectivity & Expectations • Conclusion 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 7
8. Network Architecture Overview Multi-POP backbone across Japan & Asia • NOC = Member’s home server rack site • POP = Data center site • East Japan: NOC01, NOC03, NOC05, POP03, POP05 • West Japan: NOC51, NOC52, POP52, POP53, POP54 • Overseas: POP201 (Philippines), POP202 (Taiwan - NEW!) Routing: OSPF (IGP) + iBGP (Full Mesh) • OSPF for internal reachability between POPs • iBGP full mesh for Internet route distribution IX Connections • JPIX Tokyo/Osaka, EIE Tokyo, JCIX, BBIX Philippines • Upcoming: STUIX (Taiwan) 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 8
9. BGP Design & Routing Policy Route selection • Local Preference (LP) by peer type • Customer (LP 350) > Peering (LP 300) > Transit (LP 200) Peering MED sub-classification • Private (MED 300) > IX Bilateral (MED 600) > IX RS (MED 900) Import filtering • Bogon, AS-Path • Prefix (/25-/32), RPKI/ROV Advanced • BGP Flowspec, RTBH • BGP Community-based TE 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 9
10. Services We Provide Connectivity Services for Members • L2 connectivity (VLAN-based) / L3 Static routing / L3 BGP • Global Internet transit / Colocation in our rack Access Methods • EtherIP / GRE / IP-IP tunnels (remote access from home) • Cross Connect / IX port (DC colocated members) • Members can connect from multiple sites • → Enables hands-on traffic engineering across POPs What Members Can Learn • Real BGP operations with actual Internet routes (full table) • BGP Community-based traffic engineering • RPKI, Flowspec, and production network operations 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 10
11. Outline • Background • Who We Are: HomeNOC (AS59105) • Technical Deep Dive: Network Architecture & BGP Design • Activities, Achievements & Learning/Research ASN • New Taiwan PoP: Design, Connectivity & Expectations • Conclusion 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 11
12. Our Activities Presentation at JANOG Meeting Hosted a BoF at the JANOG51~57 meeting to discuss operations of the experimental network. 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 12 Building Fukuoka POP We build our POP at a university in Fukuoka with students.
13. Our Activities 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 13 Participate in Peering Events We met a lot of peering partners and took part in Peering Personal. Connect to BBIX Manila We connected to BBIX Manila in 2024. We expect the Philippines to become one of Asia’s Internet hubs, with growing regional traffic.
14. Our Activities 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 14 Participate in APRICOT 2024/2025/2026 As a member of the Internet community, we participated in APRICOT and engaged in discussions and idea exchanges.
15. Achievement We have built a new technical community • The users exceeded 220 • Many people discuss issues at events or Slack Providing learning opportunities for young engineers • Knowledge of AS operations, IX and data centers • Building relationships with people in the Internet community 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 15
16. Outline • Background • Who We Are: HomeNOC (AS59105) • Technical Deep Dive: Network Architecture & BGP Design • Activities, Achievements & Learning/Research ASN • New Taiwan PoP: Design, Connectivity & Expectations • Conclusion 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 16
17. Why Taiwan? Strategic Location for Asia Expansion • After Philippines (POP201), Taiwan is the next step in our Asia presence • Low latency to Japan (~30ms) - ideal for real-time services • Hub for connecting to broader Asian peering ecosystem Connectivity in Taiwan • STUIX - a community-based Internet Exchange in Taiwan • DIA from AS18041 - Backbone link to Japan Community Collaboration • Collaborate with Taiwanese network communities (TWNOG, STUIX) • Share operational experience across borders 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 17
18. Infrastructure Design POP202 - TWDS Data Center, Taipei • 2U colocation in a shared rack Equipment (4 devices in 2U) • Juniper MX150 (BGP Router) • SKS-8310-8X (L2 Switch, 8x 10G SFP+) • Mini PC #1: EtherIP tunnel endpoint • Mini PC #2 (Proxmox VE): • Mgmt Router + Console Server + VM Host 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 18 POP202 Equipment Stack (2U) Juniper MX150 (BGP Router) 1U SKS-8310 (L2 Switch) Mini PC #1 (EtherIP) Mini PC #2 (Proxmox) 1U on Shelf Board
19. Taiwan PoP: Connectivity • STUIX 10G IX connection for peering • AS18041 DIA / Transit for Internet connectivity • Additional management DIA directly connected to the mini PC • Used as an OOB access path • EtherIP tunnels to Japan backbone (POP03 / NOC01) 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 19 POP202 (TWDS DC, Taipei) STUIX 10G AS18041 DIA 1G Japan Backbone (POP03 / NOC01)
20. Japan-Taiwan Interconnection • All backbone links built on EtherIP tunnels over the Internet • OSPF cost explicitly set based on distance from Tokyo core • Taiwan is closer → lower cost → preferred over Manila 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 20 NOC01 / POP03 (Tokyo) POP54 (Osaka) NOC03 (Fukuoka) POP202 (Taiwan) POP201 (Manila) cost 100 cost 200 cost 2000 cost 3000 ~2,100km ~3,000km
21. What Taiwan PoP Enables Expanded Peering Reach • Direct peering with Taiwanese and Asian networks via STUIX • Better routing to content hosted in Taiwan and Southeast Asia Lower Latency for Members • Members can connect to Taiwan PoP for local access • Improved latency to Asian destinations compared to Tokyo-only routing Cross-Border Community Building • Physical presence enables face-to-face collaboration with TW communities • Potential for joint workshops and knowledge sharing Stepping Stone for Further Expansion • Taiwan as a hub for future POPs in other Asian countries 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 21
22. Challenges & Considerations Logistics & Procurement • Hand-carry equipment from Japan vs. local/AliExpress procurement • Customs declaration for network equipment • Large items (shelf boards) better sourced locally The Difficulty of Remote Hands • All operations must be done remotely • Lesson from POP201: A remote operation mistake required • physically traveling to Manila to fix it • Redundancy is key: e.g. POP201 has 3 independent paths Serving Local Users - A Legal Challenge • We want local users to benefit from our services • However, providing connectivity services to local users may require local registration, licensing, or cooperation with a licensed local partner. • Not yet achieved in Philippines (POP201) either • We would appreciate suggestions from the Taiwanese community. 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 22
23. Our future • Continue to actively contribute as a member of the Internet community • Establish and grow our Taiwan PoP as a permanent Asian presence • Expand peering at STUIX • Explore Taiwan-based connectivity for members in cooperation with local partners • Collaborate with organizations in Asia engaged in similar activities to increase the number of Learning/Research ASNs • Further Asian expansion beyond Taiwan and Philippines 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 23
24. Conclusion • HomeNOC (AS59105): A learning/research network operating a real production backbone since 2015 • Our new Taiwan PoP (POP202) brings us closer to the Asian peering ecosystem with STUIX and a transit provider • We believe Learning/Research ASNs can bridge communities and grow the next generation of network engineers across Asia • We welcome collaboration and peering with Taiwanese networks! 2026/5/15 © 2026 Home NOC Operators' Group 24
25. Thank you. https://x.com/AS59105 https://www.facebook.com/AS59105 HP https://www.homenoc.ad.jp