The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook

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 <wbn@equinix.com>

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 e-mail to wbn@equinix.com Or Google for “William B. Norton” Myths…

5. Research “The Art of Peering” • Follow up to the first three white papers. Q: When e-mail to peering@<ispdomain>.net 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. P? APC APC A APC APC BS BPC B BS BPC T? Graphical Notation of Tactics To Portray Peering Plays Pictorially… P?=Peering Request w/ Peering Coordinator Peering Negotiation T?=Transit Request To Sales Person Transit Negotiations A B ISP Initiator ISP Target P? ISP B Customers ISP A Customers T? $ $ Larger Circle=More Customer Prefixes Thicker Lines=More Traffic

7. T A A A A P B B B B 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) Size indicates effective size of transport Supporting the session $ T $ Represents “the rest of the Internet” P Graphical Display of Routing Announcements

8. T A A A A P B B B B Traffic over Transit and Peering Sessions $ Traffic showed as directed lines Thickness of line indicates amount of Traffic in relevant direction T $ 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 P

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

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

12. APC B 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? $ T?/P?

13. P P A A B B 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. $

14. A B 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 H pt $ I J K L M Routing Announcements Forwarding all customer & Peering Pt Routes (almost peering – maybe costs less) Geographically Remote Router

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

16. http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:NOS3HJhX9jcJ:www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg11606.html+level3+network+status+cogent&hl=ithttp://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:NOS3HJhX9jcJ:www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg11606.html+level3+network+status+cogent&hl=it

17. Example occurred on Wednesday!

18. What tactic is this?

19. http://scoreboard.keynote.com/scoreboard/Main.aspx?Destination=Level3http://scoreboard.keynote.com/scoreboard/Main.aspx?Destination=Level3

20. http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg12221.html

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

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

23. T T T P P P A A APC T T T T T T G B BPC L B G L G L 9b)    For Access Heavy Guys…In the Traffic Manipulation tactic, Access ISP a) stop announcing routes, orb) insert Target AS# into announcement to trigger BGP Loop Suppression to force traffic along the network path that makes peering appear most cost effective. $ $ $ 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. A A L B B G 10)The Bluff maneuver is simply overstating future traffic volumes or performance issues to make peering appear more attractive. P? Overstating Traffic Futures “You better peer with me now cause… Lots of transit fees coming otherwise!” P $ $ T T Fictitious Performance Problems

25. APC 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! From the highest mountain “We will Peer with Anyone!”

26. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX IX 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. C M Eastern TimeZone Pacific TimeZone “Meet us in 3 Time Zones”

27. APC BPC 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. P? Forums to meet Peering Coordinators GPF NANOG APRICOT RIPE IETF :

28. APC 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 IX Participants List : :

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

30. ANOC BNOC 19)The False Peering Outage tactic involves deceiving an ill-equipped NOC into believing a non-existing peering session is down. Peering Point X 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. P APC A A APC BS B B BS 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. P? Peering Tied with “Other” +Fiber deal +Dial-in deal +Racks +Transport +Strategic deal : P? Tied with 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 e-mail to wbn@equinix.com or • Most white papers (except this one) are on-line at http://www.equinix.com/ • Or <google search “William B. Norton”>

33. 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 Some differences between European and U.S. Model Internet Exchange