1. The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook
William B. Norton
Co-Founder & Chief Technical Liaison
Equinix, Inc.
NaMeX Member Meeting
October 7, 2005
Rome, Italy

2. What is Equinix?
One of the largest Carrier-Neutral Colocation Providers in the world
Operate Dominant IXes in the U.S. (Ashburn Flagship IX)
15 Internet Business Exchanges across U.S. and Asia (HK, TK, SG, SYD)
200+ Networks across IBXes
~50Gbps aggregate traffic
What does wbn do?

3. 6yrs Internet Researcher
90% externally focused
Document Internet Operations Practices – Interconnect/Peering/IXes/etc.
Research with the community
Write White Paper version M.m
Walk throughs & Feedback
Fix/Update Paper
200 Walkthroughs later – a document reflecting community Internet Operations knowledge
So far 10 White Papers

4. Internet Operations White Papers
“Interconnection Strategies for ISPs”
“Internet Service Providers and Peering”
“A Business Case for Peering”
“The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook”
“The Peering Simulation Game”
“Do ATM-based Internet Exchanges Make Sense Anymore?”
“Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystem”
“Asia Pacific Peering Guidebook”
“A Business Case for Peering in 2004”
“The Great Public vs. Private Peering Debate: Peering at 10Gig”
Freely available. See Web site or send to
Or Google for “William B. Norton”
Myths…

5. Research “The Art of Peering”
Follow up to the first three white papers.
Q: When to generates no response, what do Seasoned Peering Coordinators do?
Smartest Peering Coordinator: “Tricks of the Trade”
20 Tactics successfully used to obtain Peering where you otherwise might not be able to.
Disclaimer: These are NOT recommended tactics…I am simply documenting what has been successfully used in the field to obtain peering.
Language.Graphical notation to describe the tactics

6. Graphical Notation of Tactics
To Portray Peering Plays Pictorially…
APC
BPC P?
P?=Peering Request w/
Peering Coordinator
Peering Negotiation
T?=Transit Request
To Sales Person
Transit Negotiations A B
ISP Initiator
ISP Target P?
APC
BPC
ISP B
Customers
ISP A
Customers T?
APC BS $ A B
APC BS T? $
Larger Circle=More Customer Prefixes
Thicker Lines=More Traffic

7. Transit and Peering Sessions
T=Established Transit Session
(Selling Access to entire Internet)
Size indicates effective size of transport
Supporting the session
P=Established Peering Session
(Reciprocal Access to each others customers) A B T $ A T B $
Represents “the rest of the Internet” A B P A P B
Graphical Display of Routing Announcements

8. Traffic over Transit and Peering SessionsB T $
Traffic showed as directed lines
Thickness of line indicates amount of
Traffic in relevant direction A T B $
Other Variations
P->T = Transition of Relationship
P | T = Either Peering or Transit apply
= Traffic destined anywhere
= Fictitious Traffic
= Packet Loss ridden Traffic
= Traffic destined to green network
= Traffic destined to brown network A B P A P B

9. Other Graphical Symbols
Peering
Point
Exchange Point,
Telco Hotel
Tied
with
Indicates two or more
Elements tied with
relationship or
Indicates a ordering:
a sequence to be followed
in the Peering Tactic

10. 1) The Direct Approach uses peering@<ispdomain>
1)    The Direct Approach uses , phone calls, face to face meetings, or otherwise direct interactions with Peering Coordinators to establish peering. P?
APC
BPC
P?=Peering Request
To Peering Coordinator(s)
Peering Negotiation
Leading to
Peering Session P?
APC
BPC
{null}
-or- A B P
{“No”,null}

11. 2)    The Transit with Peering Migration tactic leverages an internal advocate to buy transit with a contractual migration to peering at a later time.
APC BS T?
APC
BS+BPC
T->P? $ $
APC BS T? A B
T->P $ $
Transit Negotiations with Sales
leads to Peering
(…if peering prerequisites be met…) A B P

12. 3)    The End Run Tactic minimizes the need for transit by enticing a direct relationship with the target ISP’s largest traffic volume customers.
T?/P?
APC B $
T?/P?

13. 6)    Paid Peering as a maneuver is positioned by some as a stepping stone to peering for those who don’t immediately meet the peering prerequisites. A B P $ A B P

14. Routing Announcements Forwarding all customer & Peering Pt Routes
7)    In the Partial Transit tactic, the routes learned at an exchange point are exchanged with the peer for a price slightly higher than transport costs. D C E F G
Peering
Point A B H pt $ I J K L M
Routing Announcements
Forwarding all customer & Peering Pt Routes
(almost peering – maybe costs less)
Geographically
Remote Router

15. 8)    The Chicken tactic involves de-peering in order to make the other peer adjust the relationship.B P A B T $ or Y X $ $ T T P A B
Who will blink first?
A<->B Traffic has to go somewhere

16. http://66. 249. 93. 104/search. q=cache:NOS3HJhX9jcJ:www. merit

17. Example occurred on Wednesday!

18. What tactic is this?

19. http://scoreboard. keynote. com/scoreboard/Main. aspx

21. The Nature of Web Traffic
Asymmetric Traffic
Client
(Browser,
Peer2peer
client)
Small Requests
Generate Large Responses
Service
(Web Server,
Peer2peer
client)

22. 9)    In the Traffic Manipulation tactic, ISPs or content players force traffic along the network path that makes peering appear most cost effective.
APC
BPC L G P T $ P?
1 MONTH LATER
Contact PC-We should Peer! A B L G P T $
A forces traffic
Over B’s transit A B L G P T $
CH ISP
i.e.Yahoo!
B hears A’s route
‘for free’ through Peer L

23. 9b)    For Access Heavy Guys…In the Traffic Manipulation tactic, Access ISP a) stop announcing routes, or b) insert Target AS# into announcement to trigger BGP Loop Suppression to force traffic along the network path that makes peering appear most cost effective.
APC
BPC L G P T A B L G P T A B L G P T $ $ $ P? $ $ $ $
Access ISP
i.e. Verizon $ $
B hears A’s route
‘for free’ through Peer L
A forces traffic
Over B’s transit
1 MONTH LATER
Contact PC-We should Peer!

24. Overstating Traffic Futures “You better peer with me now cause…
10) The Bluff maneuver is simply overstating future traffic volumes or performance issues to make peering appear more attractive. A P? B
Overstating Traffic Futures “You better peer with me now cause…
Lots of transit fees
coming otherwise!” G L P $ $ T T A B
Fictitious
Performance
Problems

25. 11) The Wide Scale Open Peering Policy as a tactic signals to the Peering Coordinator Community the willingness to peer and therefore increases the likelihood of being contacted for peering by other ISPs. P?
To anyone who will listen!
APC
From the highest mountain
“We will Peer with Anyone!”

26. 12) The Massive Colo Build tactic seeks to meet the collocation prerequisites of as many ISPs as possible by building POPs into as many exchange points as possible. M C
Eastern
TimeZone
Pacific
TimeZone A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX A IX
“Meet us in 3 Time Zones”

27. 14) Friendship-based Peering leverages contacts in the industry to speed along and obtain peering where the process may not be in place for a peering.
BPC P?
APC
Forums to meet Peering Coordinators
GPF
NANOG
APRICOT
RIPE
IETF :

28. 15) The Spam Peering Requests tactic is a specific case of the Wide Scale Open Peering tactic using the exchange point contact lists to initiate peering. P?
IX Participants List
IX Participants List
APC
IX Participants List :

29. 17) Purchasing Legacy Peering provides an immediate set of peering partners.
Purchases
G and P A A P P P B PA B
Legacy (early Internet day) Peering

30. 19) The False Peering Outage tactic involves deceiving an ill-equipped NOC into believing a non-existing peering session is down.
ANOC
Peering
Point X
BNOC
ANOC: Hey – Emergency!
ANOC: Our Peering Session with you Went Down!
BNOC: Strange. <looks on router> I don’t see it configured.
ANOC: It was. Don’t make me escalate to <famous person>
BNOC: Ah – I bet is was that last config run that trashed it.
BNOC: Give me a few minutes to fix it on both ends.

31. 20) The Leverage Broader Business Arrangement takes advantage of other aspects of the relationship between two companies to obtain peering in exchange for something else.
APC P? BS A B P
Peering
Tied with
“Other”
+Fiber deal
+Dial-in deal
+Racks
+Transport
+Strategic deal :
APC P? BS
Tied
with A B
Other

32. Summary These are the “Tricks of the Trade”
Comments/Additions welcome !
Copies of the “Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook” are freely available
Send to or
Most white papers (except this one) are on-line at
Or <google search “William B. Norton”>

33. Some differences between European and U.S. Model Internet Exchange
European IXes
Are Non-Profit Associations
Have “Members”
Run best quality Switches
Are Colo-Neutral: Some University Grade Colo
Member Meetings and Voting on changes to policies and fees
Fixed contracts and fees
Modest Capital and Operating Budget
Low Price
24/7 on-call support
U.S. IXes
Are Commercial Corporations
Have “Customers”
Run best quality Switches
Own Financial/Commercial Grade Colo infrastructure
Follow interests of Customers, Stockholders, Employees
Negotiable Contracts and fees
Large Capital and Operating Budget
High(er) Price
24/7 on-site support w/backup processes