Internet Service Providers interconnect in peering and transit relationships in order to provide their customers with access to the global Internet. Previous studies of Internet Operations (see Peering Decision Tree, NANOG 19) in this area have highlighted key challenges facing ISPs that seek additional peering-based (non-transit) interconnections. One challenge is that the peering process is undocumented and the negotiations are veiled under non-disclosure agreements. As a result, peering discussions are hampered with confusion and misunderstandings. This led to the creation of the Peering Simulation Game, first introduced at NANOG 19, which has proven to be effective in highlighting key peering issues, and stimulating discussion amongst the audience and the players of the simulation.
This presentation and the resulting discussion are based upon operations research surrounding the current practices documented in the white paper Peering in the US, based upon the three phases of Internet peering:
The report is based upon interviews with about 50 ISP Peering Coordinators, and has been presented at US and non-US forums as well (initially presented at NANOG Peering BOF in Montreal, IEPG in Oslo, APRICOT in Seoul, Interconnect Accounting and Billing in London, and the ITU meeting in Rio de Janeiro) and has been updated to incorporate feedback from the European and Asia Pacific arenas.
About the Presenter
As Co-Founder and Director of Business Development at Equinix, Bill
Norton
focuses his attention on building strategic relationships among companies
participating at the Internet Business Exchanges. Previously, he was the
Chair of NANOG and Manager of the Internet Engineering Group at Merit,
leading a variety of national and international network research and
operations projects.
HTML slides from the BOF
"Peering Decision Tree" (Full paper
in MS Word, updated 6/22/01)