Revolutionizing Internet Mapping: How Borges Reshapes AS-to-Organization Analytics

The Internet’s infrastructure is more complex than it often appears, as networks—known as Autonomous Systems (ASes)—are frequently linked through common corporate ownership. Despite being treated as independent entities in policy discussions, competition analyses, and incident reporting, many ASes share hidden interdependencies, such as joint backhaul usage, shared submarine cable capacities, or collaborative procurement systems. A striking example is Edgio, born from the merger of Limelight and Edgecast, which faced financial collapse, bankruptcy, and a CDN shutdown in just three years, illustrating the dynamic and fragile nature of these relationships. Such complexities emphasize the growing need for tools that can better map these AS-to-organization connections.

Introducing Borges: A Breakthrough in Network Mapping

A recent study conducted by Northwestern University and its collaborators unveils a transformative tool named Borges (Better ORGanizations Entities mappingS). By incorporating advanced techniques like WHOIS registry data, PeeringDB records, website analytics, and even large language models (LLMs), Borges maps ASes to their real-world parent organizations with unprecedented accuracy. Unlike conventional methods, this system continuously updates at minimal cost—each run requiring approximately $3—ensuring an up-to-date understanding of the Internet’s corporate structure.

Borges demonstrates exceptional results in identifying related networks. It achieves high accuracy rates, such as 0.947 for detecting sibling AS numbers and 0.986 for shared domain or favicon extraction. Furthermore, Borges surpasses its predecessors, with its Organization Factor (θ) metric scoring 0.3576—a 7% improvement over AS2Org and a 3.3% enhancement over as2org+. This higher fidelity in data organization highlights hidden dependencies, improving provider reach and recognized user bases by an additional 192 million people, nearly 5% of global Internet users.

The Impact of Borges on Internet Competitiveness and Resilience

Using Borges, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders can gain a clearer understanding of corporate ownership landscapes. By regrouping previously fragmented networks under their respective parent entities, Borges provides insights that were previously unattainable. These insights not only redefine corporate reach and user base scales but also reveal overlapping physical infrastructures, enhancing our comprehension of competitiveness and resilience within the Internet’s framework.

Additionally, Borges is uniquely designed to adapt to today’s rapidly changing digital ecosystems. Its lightweight setup and cost-efficiency mean regular updates can easily keep pace with fluctuating network ownerships. This adaptability ensures that stakeholders consistently work with the most accurate and relevant data, aiding critical decisions in sectors such as regulation, infrastructure planning, and operational risk management.

Open Source and Future Innovations

What sets Borges apart is its commitment to transparency and accessibility. The system, along with its code and prompts, is entirely open source, enabling replication and continuous improvement by the global research community. By fostering collaboration, Borges invites further innovation in AS-to-organization mapping, ensuring it evolves alongside the Internet itself. Such advancements hold the potential to reshape our understanding of digital networks and the interplay among their stakeholders.

As demonstrated by the ongoing research at Northwestern University’s AquaLab, led by experts like Esteban Carisimo, Borges signifies a milestone in Internet research. For those interested in delving deeper, the detailed paper, ‘Learning AS-to-Organization Mappings with Borges,’ presented at IMC ’25, offers further insights into its development and applications. Understanding the Internet’s ownership landscape has never been more critical, and Borges paves the way for enhanced competition, improved resilience, and a more transparent digital future.