FW: de-peering and peering

[Steve Naslund <snaslund () interaccess com>]

Sorry, sent this privately.  Maybe others are interested.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Naslund [mailto:snaslund () interaccess com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 12:36 PM
To: Shashi Kumar
Subject: RE: de-peering and peering


Peering arrangements are when networks make connections between each other.
Usually networks of
equal size (traffic wise) will try to peer with each other.  Although this
may not be technically correct here
are the basics.

Peering - connections between networks that our cooperative, there is no
cost other than the physical
connection itself.  That cost might be shared or the smaller network may pay
for the physical connection.
Carries traffic that terminates on one of the two networks.  i.e. you can't
go through the peering connection
you have with my network to get to another network.  Consider peering
connections to be express routes between
two networks.  You generally can get this type of connection if you are a
service provider or public institution.
It is harder to get if you are a private entity unless you can show a
benefit for me in peering with you.  In
other words, I would like the traffic flow to be as symmetric as possible or
improve service for an important
customer.

Transit - connections between networks that I pay for an allow me to get to
anything on the Internet.  These
are generally very expensive but allow you to reach anyone, anywhere.
Consider transit connections to be the
superhighway with exits to everywhere but with a lot of traffic.  Anyone who
buys service from an upstream
provider has a transit connection although they usually refer to full BGP
sessions.

Now you can see that if I am paying for a transit connection through say
UUnet and I have a ton of traffic going
to say Exodus, it is in my best interest to try to establish a peering
agreement with Exodus so that I don't have
to use my expensive bandwidth from UUnet.  I can also get a more direct
route to where my customers want to go and
avoid congestion.

Peering and de-peering have a huge impact on traffic engineering because
lack of peering means that most traffic
is being carried by the biggest transit providers like UUnet and Cable &
Wireless.  Peering makes the Internet
more redundant and reliable and evens out the loads better.  Traffic
engineering is all about peering and which
paths are preferred over others.  I your only connections are transit then
there are not many options for
traffic engineering.

Steve

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu]On Behalf Of
> Shashi Kumar
> Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 12:36 PM
> To: nanog () merit edu
> Subject: de-peering and peering
>
>
> Dear List:
>
>     Sorry for a naive question. Could some one on the list explain what is
> peering and de-peering ? and how peering and de-peering influence
> traffic engineering?. ( data traffic or otherwise..)
>
> thanks in advance,
> shashi