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What is a Peering Coordinator? May 25, 2009 Copyright © 2009 Limelight Networks. All rights reserved.
What is a Peering Coordinator?
May 25, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Limelight Networks. All rights reserved.
A change of presenters…
Martin LevyGuy Tal
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Presentation agenda
What is a Peering Coordinator? Why do I need one?
What is a Peering Policy? Do I need one?
What is in play at a peering discussion? What is a successful peering agreement?
Homework before starting a peering discussion.
Peering db, what it is and how to use it.
Meetings to attend.
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What is a peering coordinator?
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What is a Peering Coordinator?
More than almost anyone at your company, a peering coordinator is responsible for the performance of the network.
Peering coordinators ensure that their customers’ traffic gets to and from its destination in the “best” possible manner.
Public face to your company.
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What a Peering Coordinator is not…
Salesman
Product manager
BGP expert
Network architect
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Why do I need a Peering Coordinator?
A good peering coordinator not only brings on new peering, he/she makes your existing peering more robust.
While a network engineer or a NOC can handle turning up new peers, these people have other job responsibilities that are their primary focus. You need someone devoted to your peering strategy.
Having a single point of contact for people to communicate with simplifies the peering process.
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What is peering?
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What is peering?
Peering involves two networks coming together to exchange traffic with each other freely, and for mutual benefit. This 'mutual benefit' is most often the motivation behind peering, which is often described solely by "reduced costs for transit services".
Other less tangible motivations can include:Increased capacity for extremely large amounts of traffic (distributing traffic across many networks).
Increased control over your traffic (reducing dependence on one or more transit providers).
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What is peering? (continued)
Improved performance (attempting to bypass potential bottlenecks with a "direct" path).
Improved perception of your network (being able to claim a "higher tier").
Government regulations, or the desire to avoid the appearance of being a monopoly.
Increased billable customer traffic.
Another common way to look at peering is, “Would either side be more hurt if the peering does not exist?”
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Peering policies
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Peering policies
A peering policy is designed to help both your organization and external organizations understand what the minimum requirements are for connecting to your network
Peering policies should be shaped by a company’s engineering, sales and product management departments
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Types of peering policies
OpenNetwork will generally peer with anyone
SelectiveNetwork will peer if certain requirements are met
RestrictiveNetwork will generally not peer with anyone
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Open peering policies
Networks that have traffic profiles that are very imbalanced (either inbound or outbound)
Networks that do not have an overwhelming market share or have lower traffic volumes
Networks that are more concerned with performance than top line revenue
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Selective peering policies
Carrier networks that have traffic profiles that are imbalanced (either inbound or outbound)
Networks that do not have an overwhelming market share but with higher traffic volumes
Networks that are most concerned with bottom line revenue
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Restrictive peering policies
Carrier networks that have traffic profiles that are very balanced
Networks that have close to monopolistic market share
Networks that are more concerned with top line revenue than performance
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Sample peering policies
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Sample peering policy
Network must have backbone circuits of X sizeThe network considering the peering wants to know that there is sufficient network between each of your POPs to handle both day-to-day operations as well as be able to route during failure/maintenance conditions. Also shows that your network is large enough to be considered a peer.
Network must interconnect in X locationsThe network considering the peering is not interested in carrying all the traffic to or from you. With multiple interconnection points, there will be some hot-potatoing of traffic that will be in their best interest. Also shows that your network is large enough to be considered a peer.
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Sample peering policy
Network must exchange X amount of trafficPeering can get expensive for larger networks, in capital expenditure (capex), operational expenditure (opex) as well as overhead (oh). Another metric designed to show that your network is large enough to be considered a peer.
Network may not be a customer simultaneouslyIf your company is already paying the network you are applying for peering with to exchange traffic, what is their motivation to make it free? Even if you are not sending them any traffic to their customers, it’s still a threat to their revenue.
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Sample peering policy
Network must have 24/7 NOCThe network considering the peering wants to know that you take your IP platform as serious as they do. There is also usually a stipulation that complaints be looked at withing X hours. Also shows that your network is large enough to be considered a peer.
Network must maintain abuse deskSimilar to a 24/7 NOC, an abuse desk is vital for IP operations.Directly connecting to a network creates some additional security risk for a network. Both sides should have a way to handle those risks.
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Sample peering policy
Network may only announce customer routesThe definition of Settlement Free Interconnect (SFI) is that each network only announces their customer routes to each other, but there are networks that would announce other routes to influence peering metrics.
Network may not point default route to other networkNeeding to point default route at another network is a clear sign that there is an imbalance in networks. Networks that have been discovered to point default are immediately depeered and publicly shamed.
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Sample peering policy
Network must filter their customers’ announcementsFor many networks, maintaining a prefix-list access-list or even an as-path access-list does not scale. There is a certain degree of trust among peers when they exchange Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI).
Network must announce routes consistentlyBy selectively announcing or withdrawing routes from particular peering points, a network can force their peering partner to carry more traffic than they should. Consistent announcements allows both sides to handle their own TE.
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Sample peering policy
Network must maintain X ratio of trafficFor some networks, there is a belief that the ratio of traffic exchanged indicates whether another network is a peer or a customer. An imbalance in either direction can indicate that thenetwork will have to carry more of the burden of traffic delivery than the other network.
There is a long standing debate whether ratios should be a peering metric or not, and it’s an emotional subject for many.
With increase of peer to peer traffic, many ISPs have much more balanced traffic than before!
e.g. You send 200Mb, You get 100Mb: 2:1 ratio
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Lesser used peering policy items
Network must transit X amount of ASNsTo some networks, this is an indication that your network is large enough to peer with.
Network must maintain single global ASNLike the requirement about consistent announcements, a peering manager wants to make sure that they would get all routes in all locations with identical route characteristics.
Network must aggregate their routesSimilar to global ASN and consistent announcements, this requirement ensures that the network applying for peering carries its fair share of traffic.
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Lesser used peering policy items
Network must register routes with routing registryMost network won’t actually filter based on routes registered in a route registry, but if everyone did, the internet would be a lot more secure. This shows that the applying network is at least attempting to filter its customers.
Network must interconnect with interfaces of at least X size
Ensures that traffic will not be bottle-necked based on the physical interconnections themselves. Also shows that your network is large enough to be considered a peer.
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Lesser used peering policy items
Network must peer with each other in all locations that they operate (including home market)
This is assumed by most peering policies as it seems almost obvious, but there are networks that refuse to peer in their home markets, and if they do, they will not qualify for peering with networks that either have this stipulation in writing or implication.
Network must have peering.db entryIt is difficult to keep contact information up to date for many network operators, so having a central database of network and contact information is critical for many networks.
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Peering physical interconnections
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Peering physical interconnections
Public InterconnectionsInternet eXchanges or Network Access Points (IXs or NAPs) are often times a very economical method of exchanging traffic, assuming the peering policy is at least selective. Generally done by multiple networks connecting to an Ethernet switch or fabric.
Private InterconnectionsOften referred to as Private Network Interconnections (PNIs). Can be either be Ethernet or rarely SONET/SDH based, but the key is that it’s a Point To Point (PTP) circuit or cross-connect.
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Multilateral vs Bilateral IXPs
Bilateral BGP sessionsPeering coordinators can pick and choose which networks to peer with. Some IXs with hundreds of networks make this difficult for operations departments to keep up with network status (i.e. flapping peers, maintenances, etc.)
Mandatory Multilateral Peering Agreements (MLPA)An option at many IXs around the world (but for some reason mandatory at many LATAM IXs). Discourages networks from connecting if they have selective or restrictive peering policies.
Beneficial if government mandates that local ISPs must interconnect at the IX.
Low administrative overhead.
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Notable IXPs for South America
FAPESP/NapDoBrasil - established 1998
PTT Brasil - established 2004
CABASE Buenos Aires - established 1998
NOTA Miami - established 2001
NAP Chile - established 1997
NAP Peru - established 2000
NAP Colombia - established 1998
NAP Ecuador - established 2001
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Sample peering fabric (KleyReX or AMSIX)
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What is peering.db?
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Peering.db
A peering database that everyone should have an entry in and keep maintained.
Created by and for peering coordinators.
A chance to publish information to let other companies know about your network and how to contact you.
A reference of Internet eXchange (IX) points and colocation facilities.
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Peering.db homepage
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Getting started with peering.db
Navigate to www.peeringdb.com and register a user account. Use your work email address.
You will then be prompted to attach your user record to a network record. If one already exists for your company, you will need to be verified by the creator of the account. If one doesn’t exist, you can create your company record.
Putting more information into your company record will ensure more people will know about you and contact you!
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Peering.db networks view
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Peering.db facilities view
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Peering.db exchange point view
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Meetings to attend
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Conferences to attend
LACNICBest concentration of Latin American network operators and peering coordinators. But you already know that, you’re here ☺
GPF (Global Peering Forum)Good mix of North American, European, Asian, and Latin American peering coordinators.
ITW (International Telecoms Week)Executive level meetings with global carriers.
NANOGMostly North American operators and peering coordinators.
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Tips for successful conferences
Know who is attendingCheck the attendee list and make a list of people that work at networks that you work or want to work with. Ask the meeting coordinators to help with introductions if necessary.
Schedule meetings before you arriveThe best way to ensure you speak to everyone you want to is to email them and fill up your appointment calendar.
Send out-going, friendly, English speaking peopleA lot can get done at the actual meetings, but a good company representative can make the initial contacts and pass along contact information as well.
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Peering negotiations
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First and foremost, know your network
Who are your marquee customers?Your customers make you interesting. It’s OK if you don’t have transit customers, traffic sourced or destined to your network can many times be interesting enough.
Singly-homed traffic gives you power. There is only one place to get that traffic from, YOU!
What markets and networks does your traffic come from? Where is it going?
Does your network architecture/hardware allow you to expand into many or few sites?
Have facts and figures of your network profile.
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I know who am I, who are you?
How do you know where your traffic is coming from/going to? You may have a gut feeling, but is your company going to spend millions of dollars on a feeling?
Use flow-based tools to find out for sure, you may be surprised.
Create a list of top networks that you exchange traffic with that you are not currently peering with, and rank them by amount of traffic.
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Know your target peer’s network
Now you know who you want to peer with, what next?
Before you contact them, find out where they have network POPs.
Check company website for network maps.
Check peering.db for a list of facilities and IXs.
If possible, find out what size the network isYou may only be exchanging 1Gbps of traffic, but that may be 10% of their traffic. Most networks would welcome peering off that percentage of traffic.
What type of peering strategy do they have?
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The actual negotiation (part 1)
Most networks have open peering policies, so if you’re both connected to an IX, peering can begin within hours or days of initial contact.
What if someone has a selective policy? Chances are if you have an interesting enough network or if they don’t sell transit in your home market, you’ll be able to peer.
Many selective networks have peering policies that they expect you to meet.
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The actual negotiation (part 2)
The most difficult network to get peering from is the restrictive network.
Timing is everything.
Some restrictive networks are forced to maintain a certain number of peered networks due to merger regulations. In these cases, smaller traffic flows are in your favor.
Depending on who your upstream is, there may be congestion or ratio issues with their peering partner, so to help alleviatethose concerns, you may qualify for peering.
You can’t get what you don’t ask for. To the bold goes the spoils!
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Network expansion?
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Expanding your network for peering
Theoretically, you now know that if you expand into a new POP, you could pick up X amount of peering, time to start making introductions. But who do you talk to?
Contact the colocation provider and IXP operators in the target city. They usually have contacts at all the networks they provide services to. Plus, more peering for you means more business for them, so they have business reasons to want you to join and exchange traffic.
Many networks use generic mailing lists for common tasks, such as peering@ or noc@
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Expanding your network for peering
Email either the contacts you gather or as a worst case scenario, the peering@ list alias.
Include a description of your network is and why they should want to peer with you. This is your opportunity to brag about your network.
Create a list of favorable responses and how much traffic that represents.
Now the important part, find out whether it makes sense for you to expand your network in order to peer!
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Building a business case
Get quotes from colocation providers and transport providers and compute how much it’s going to cost to build a new POP.
Divide that cost by how much traffic you believe you will be able to peer.
If that cost is lower than how much you pay for transit, you have a good case to expand your network.
Transit may cost less. It’s not always cheaper to peer.
Consider other factors like performance, redundancy, ability to meet previously unattainable peering policies.
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In summary
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SummaryDevote one person to peering at your company, it’s a full time job!
Design your network so that you are flexible enough to achieve your traffic engineering goals.
Create a viable peering strategy that fits your network.
The more visible you are, the more successful your peering will be. This includes using industry standard mailing list aliases and joining peering.db!
Know as much about your target network as you can.
Send the right people to the right meetings.
Remember that in the end, it’s all dollars and sense.
Questions?
Guy Tal ([email protected])
Director of Strategic Relations
Copyright © 2009 Limelight Networks. All rights reserved.
Martin Levy ([email protected])
Director, IPv6 Strategy
