Manual
The manual provides an introduction and guide to using the RIPE IPmap API and FTP dumps. It also describes the methods of the various geolocation engines used by IPmap.
Go to the ManualMapping core Internet infrastructure
RIPE IPmap is an API that maps core Internet infrastructure by providing geolocation data for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), transit providers, and routers within autonomous systems. It is built collaboratively with academics to provide developers, operators and researchers a good degree of accuracy and completeness of geolocation results.
Getting started with RIPE IPmap
The RIPE IPmap API is open for public use. Through the API, you can get a list of possible geolocation results for an IP address at city or country level.
Check the documentation below and start using the API.
API Reference
The API reference provides a complete description of the RIPE IPmap endpoints and returned data types. It will provide you with the full details of how to structure your API queries.
Go to the API referenceHow RIPE IPmap can be used
Visualising routing paths
You can use the data received from RIPE IPmap to draw maps which visualise the hops from a traceroute path.
Highlighting routing inefficiencies
RIPE IPmap shows you when traffic is taking an inefficient route, for example leaving and re-entering a country. This can help you create new peering policies.
Analysing events affecting the Internet
The data can be used to show how geographically anchored events, such as a major Internet disruption in a country or region, can affect the flow of Internet traffic.
How RIPE IPmap works
Geolocation results are provided by multiple complementary engines, providing a good degree of accuracy and completeness.
Geolocation Engines
Each geolocation engine contains a set of techniques for guessing the location of a particular IP address.
Latency Engine
The latency engine uses speed of light calculations based on measurement results from RIPE Atlas probes with known locations.
Reverse DNS Engine
The reverse DNS engine uses geographical identifiers in PTR records to make guesses to the locations of IP addresses.