Richard Steenbergen, nLayer Communications, and Nathan
Patrick, Sonic.net
For network operators engaged in peering, an accurate analysis of their
traffic is essential for:
- Making determinations about potential new peering partners
- Convincing other networks to peer with you
- Traffic engineering to external networks
- Defending your network against depeering
- Making intelligent transit purchase decisions that support your peering
strategies
NetFlow can be a powerful tool for obtaining information about the traffic
on your network, but existing tools are only equipped to provide
information about the current path, or the final destination for the
traffic. Because the vast majority of Internet routes are reachable
through more than one AS path, a full understanding of the non-active but
available paths is critical to making intelligent decisions about peering
and transit purchasing strategies. However, because BGP obscures all but
the best-path information, new techniques must be developed in order to
analyze these alternate paths. This presentation aims to discuss some of
these techniques, based on the practical experiences of network operators,
as well as share concepts and examples for analysis which historically
could only be accomplished through trial and error methods.
Some example uses include:
- Accurately determining the amount of traffic that would be exchanged
with a potential new peer, as well as what other paths are available
to that traffic.
- Convincing networks to peer with you, by being able to show them the
missed business in traffic that is delivered via alternate paths.
- Finding alternate paths to the largest customers of networks who will
not peer with you ("Donut" peering analysis).
- Analyzing the routing policies of existing or potentially new transit
providers as it impacts your network's traffic, without actually having
to purchase transit or shift traffic.
About the Presenter
Richard Steenbergen is the Co-Founder of nLayer Communications, where he
currently serves as Chief Technical Officer and devotes a significant
amount of time to the strategic management of peering and transit
relationships. Previously, he served as a Sr. Network Engineer for several
large NSPs, and was the Sr. Software Engineer responsible for developing
optimized routing technologies at netVmg, Inc.
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