Anand Raje

Nominee details

Title: Mr.
Name: Anand Raje
Position: CTO
Organization: India Internet Foundation

Anand Raje

Biographical info

Education/qualifications

I am currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Information Technology at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, with research interests in Internet infrastructure, routing security, resilience, DNS, and Internet measurement.

My academic and professional qualifications include:

Master of Technology (M.Tech) in Software Systems, BITS Pilani – Work Integrated - Learning Programmes, 2021–2023.
M.Sc. in Computer Science (Network Security), Annamalai University, 2008 – 2009 – awarded with Distinction.
NIELIT B Level in Software Engineering / Computer Science & Applications, National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), 2001–2004.

These qualifications, combined with over two decades of professional experience in Internet infrastructure, network engineering, cybersecurity, research, and technical capacity building, underpin my current work in Internet routing security and standards related activities.

Experience and involvement in APNIC activities

Over the past couple of years, my engagement with the APNIC and wider Asia-Pacific Internet technical community has increasingly focused on routing security, Internet resilience, RPKI deployment, BGP security, measurement, and capacity building. I am currently serving as a Program Committee Co-Chair for APNIC 62, contributing to the development of a technically relevant programme and broader community engagement.

A major focus of my recent work has been translating routing-security concepts into practical deployment, research, and training activities. Through the India Internet Foundation and the Advanced Internet Operations Research in India (AIORI) initiative, I have been working with academic institutions, researchers, students, and network operators on topics including Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI), Route Origin Authorisation (ROA), Route Origin Validation (ROV), ASPA, BGP route leaks and hijacks, routing resilience, anycast, and Internet measurement.

My involvement in the Internet technical community has developed over many years. I was selected as a MANRS Ambassador in 2023, an initiative particularly relevant to my continuing work on routing security and mutually agreed norms for routing resilience. I was also selected as an Internet Society Mid Career Fellow in 2022.

My connection with the APNIC community goes back further, including being selected as an APRICOT 2018 Kathmandu Fellow. My wider technical-community participation has included an Internet Society IETF 94 Yokohama Fellowship, ICANN Fellowship for IETF 104 Prague, APSIG 2017 Bangkok Fellowship, and ICANN Fellowships for ICANN 55 Marrakech and ICANN 59 Johannesburg. These opportunities helped build my engagement across the operational, standards-development and Internet governance communities.

More recently, I have been particularly interested in creating a stronger bridge between the APNIC operational community, universities, researchers and emerging network engineers. Through workshops, technical laboratories, research projects and mentoring, I have been encouraging participants to move beyond learning routing-security concepts toward actually creating ROAs, operating validators, analysing BGP data, understanding ROV behaviour, studying routing incidents, and contributing to the broader Internet technical community.

I believe this combination of operational experience, routing-security research, technical capacity building, standards engagement and long-standing participation in the Asia Pacific Internet community would allow me to contribute meaningfully to the APNIC Routing Security SIG.

Nominee statement

I would like to serve the APNIC Routing Security SIG and contribute to the community based on my experience in routing security, Internet infrastructure, research and capacity building.

Over the last few years, routing security has become one of the major areas of my work. I have been working on RPKI, ROA, ROV, ASPA, BGP routing incidents, route leaks and Internet measurements, both from research and deployment perspectives. Through the India Internet Foundation and AIORI, we are also trying to take these topics beyond presentations and discussions by building hands-on labs, developing research problems, conducting training programmes and involving students, faculty, researchers and network engineers.

One thing I have realised through this work is that there is still a gap between understanding routing security and actually deploying it. RPKI adoption is growing, but questions around ROV deployment, operational impact, troubleshooting, ASPA and measurement still need more discussion within the operator community. I believe the Routing Security SIG can be a very useful platform for sharing these practical experiences, including what worked, what did not work, and what we can learn from deployments across different networks and economies.

I have been associated with the wider Internet technical community through APNIC, APRICOT, IETF, Internet Society, MANRS, ICANN and APSIG. My experience as a MANRS Ambassador further strengthened my interest in routing security and routing resilience. I am also currently serving as a Program Committee Co-Chair for APNIC 62, which has given me another opportunity to work closely with the APNIC community.

If elected, I would particularly like to work on increasing participation from operators and emerging technical communities in routing-security discussions. I would like to see more deployment experiences, troubleshooting cases, measurements, research findings and hands-on discussions within the SIG. There is also good scope to bring more participants from economies where RPKI and ROV adoption is still developing.

Another area which I would like to contribute to is connecting the operator and academic communities. There are many routing-security problems which can become meaningful research topics if researchers and students get access to the right operational questions. RPKI measurements, ROV behaviour, route leaks, ASPA, routing anomalies and routing resilience are some examples. At the same time, such engagement can also create a new generation of contributors to the APNIC and IETF communities.

For me, the Routing Security SIG should be a place where people can learn, share operational experience, discuss problems and collectively work towards improving routing security in the Asia-Pacific region. I would be happy to contribute my experience and, more importantly, work with the community to take this forward.

Nominated by

Organization name

India Internet Foundation

Reason for nomination

Anand Raje is a technology entrepreneur and researcher interested in Internet resiliency. He is researching and developing next-generation DNS artifacts and an Internet measurement platform.

Anand is passionate about engaging with diverse stakeholders through the co-founded India Internet Foundation(IIFON) to work towards a secure, stable, and resilient Internet ecosystem in the region. He helped conceptualize and establish the First MANRS - compliant community IXP in India, Kolkata IX, and contributed to bringing the first L-Root instances to India.

Anand has been part of 2023 MANRS Mentors and Ambassadors Program where in he participated as Ambassador. He also conceptualized and executed the Advanced Internet Operations Research in India (AIORI) research project, which involved developing an Indigenous Internet Measurement Network (AIORI-IMN) with 300+ vantage points and a DNS Anycast research testbed for stakeholders. Being the CTO of this program, he brings in huge operational realities into the conversations of this SIG.

He regularly contributes to training and outreach associated with routing security, DNS/DNSSEC, BGP best practices, cyber frauds, and the Indian School of Internet Governance (inSIG) as well as ICANN, Internet Society, SANOG, inSIG, and the IIGF. He has been conducting most of the AIORI workshops involving Internet routing and security.

Currently, he is pursuing his PhD from Indian Institute of Science - Shibpur on Internet operations and behavior.

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