Path Divergence
Path Divergence is the counterpart to Khipu. While Khipu visualises paths from many probes to a single target, Path Divergence visualises paths from a single probe to multiple targets across different measurements. This lets you see how a probe's outbound paths diverge as they travel toward different destinations around the world.
Overview
Path Divergence answers the question: "Where do my paths split when reaching different destinations?" By selecting a probe and one or more traceroute measurements that probe participates in, you can see:
- Shared path segments near the source (e.g. common ISP hops)
- The point at which paths diverge toward different targets
- How routing decisions differ depending on the destination
- Geographic and AS-level divergence patterns
How It Differs from Khipu
| Khipu | Path Divergence | |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Many probes → one target | One probe → many targets |
| Input | A single measurement ID | A probe ID + one or more measurement IDs |
| Tree root | The target (centre of the tree) | The probe (centre of the tree) |
| Measurement types | Traceroute, DNS, Ping | Traceroute only |
The visualisation itself uses the same rendering engine as Khipu, so all toolbar controls, view modes (IP, ASN, Country), filtering, layout options, export, and interactive features work identically. See the Khipu documentation for full details on those features.
Getting Started
- Enter a Probe ID — Type the numeric ID of the probe you want to analyse.
- Select measurements — Click "Select Measurements" to open the measurement picker dialog. The tool automatically fetches traceroute measurements that the probe participates in.
- Click Visualise — The tool fetches the latest traceroute result for each selected measurement (for that probe) and renders the combined paths.
Selecting Measurements
The measurement picker dialog provides several ways to find and select measurements:
Filter Tabs
- Recent — Shows recent traceroute measurements the probe is participating in (user-created measurements, excluding built-ins). This is the default tab.
- Mine — Shows your own measurements that include this probe (requires being logged in).
- Built-ins — Shows RIPE Atlas built-in measurements (IDs below 1,000,000).
- Selected — Shows only your current selection, plus allows adding measurement IDs manually by entering comma-separated IDs.
Additional Filters
- Country filter — Filter the measurement list by the target's country (available in Recent, Mine, and Built-ins tabs).
- Search — Search by measurement ID, target address, or description. In non-manual tabs, typing a numeric ID that isn't in the list offers to add it manually.
Validation
When adding measurement IDs manually, the tool validates that:
- The measurement exists
- The selected probe participates in it
Sharing and Collaboration
Path Divergence saves the probe ID and selected measurement IDs in the URL as query parameters (probe_id and msm_ids). Sharing the URL will reproduce the same visualisation. Pre-built examples are available on the page to demonstrate the tool's capabilities.
Common Use Cases
Understanding Upstream Routing Diversity
Select measurements to targets in different countries or on different networks to see how your ISP routes traffic to various destinations — and whether paths share a common bottleneck.
Comparing Paths to Related Targets
Pick measurements targeting the same service in different regions (e.g. DNS root servers, CDN endpoints) to compare how paths diverge from a common source.
Investigating Probe Connectivity
Use Path Divergence to understand a probe's connectivity profile — which transit providers it uses, where IXP peering occurs, and how path length varies by destination.