The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook

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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
ltwbn_at_equinix.comgt
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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
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Internet Operations White Papers

1. Interconnection Strategies for ISPs
2. Internet Service Providers and Peering
3. A Business Case for Peering
4. The Art of Peering The Peering Playbook
5. The Peering Simulation Game
6. Do ATM-based Internet Exchanges Make Sense
   Anymore?
7. Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
8. Asia Pacific Peering Guidebook
9. A Business Case for Peering in 2004
10. The Great Public vs. Private Peering Debate
    Peering at 10Gig

Freely available. See Web site or send e-mail to
wbn_at_equinix.com Or Google for William B. Norton
Myths
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Research The Art of Peering

• Follow up to the first three white papers.
• Q When e-mail to peering_at_ltispdomaingt.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 tacticsI
  am simply documenting what has been successfully
  used in the field to obtain peering.

Language.Graphical notation to describe the
tactics
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Graphical Notation of Tactics
To Portray Peering Plays Pictorially
P?Peering Request w/ Peering Coordinator Peerin
g Negotiation T?Transit Request To Sales
Person Transit Negotiations
B
A
ISP Initiator
ISP Target
P?
ISP B Customers
ISP A Customers
T?


Larger CircleMore Customer Prefixes
Thicker LinesMore Traffic
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Transit and Peering Sessions
TEstablished Transit Session (Selling Access to
entire Internet) Size indicates effective size of
transport Supporting the session PEstablished
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
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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-gtT 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
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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
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1)    The Direct Approach uses peering_at_ltispdomaingt
.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) Pee
ring Negotiation Leading to Peering Session
P?
null
-or-
No,null
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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)
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3)    The End Run Tactic minimizes the need for
transit by enticing a direct relationship with
the target ISPs largest traffic volume
customers.
T?/P?

T?/P?
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4)    In Europe the Dual Transit/Peering
separates the peering traffic from the transit
traffic using separate interface cards and/or
routers.
P
T

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5)    Purchasing Transit Only from Large Tier 2
ISPs is an approach to reduce the risk of being a
customer of a potential peer on the road to Tier
1 status.
Tier 1 ISPs (who do not buy Transit)
P
P?
Tier 2 ISPs (who buy Transit)

T
Since A peering with any Tier 1 wont affect
transit revenue with Tier 1s There is no
financial consequence to peering. (One less
barrier to overcome during peering negotiations.)
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6)    Paid Peering as a maneuver is positioned by
some as a stepping stone to peering for those who
dont immediately meet the peering prerequisites.


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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
E
C
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
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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? Alt-gtB Traffic has to go
somewhere
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http//66.249.93.104/search?qcacheNOS3HJhX9jcJw
ww.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg11606.htmllev
el3networkstatuscogenthlit
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Example occurred on Wednesday!
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What tactic is this?
21
http//scoreboard.keynote.com/scoreboard/Main.aspx
?DestinationLevel3
22
http//www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg12221.
html
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The Nature of Web Traffic

• Asymmetric Traffic

Small Requests Generate Large Responses
Client (Browser, Peer2peer client)
Service (Web Server, Peer2peer client)
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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 As route for free through Peer L
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9b)    For Access Heavy GuysIn 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
1 MONTH LATER Contact PC-We should Peer!
B hears As route for free through Peer L
A forces traffic Over Bs transit
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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
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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!
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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
Eastern TimeZone
M
Pacific TimeZone
Meet us in 3 Time Zones
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13) The Aggressive Traffic Buildup tactic
increases the traffic volume by large scale
market and therefore traffic capture to make
peering more attractive.
P?
Cheap Transit for sale 20/Mbps!
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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 APRI
COT RIPE IETF
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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

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16) The Honey Approach

• Easier to lure flies with honeythan with
  Vinegar
• Publicly promote the attractiveness of Peering
  with the candidate.
• Example Yahoo!
• PolicyYes, millions of streaming hours
• Example Rogers
• 650K Internet subs, 2.3M cable subs
• Largest Cable company in Canada

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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
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18) The Bait and Switch tactic leverages a large
corporate identity to obtain peering even though
ultimately only a small subset or unrelated set
of routes are actually announced.
P?
P?
P
a
New Startup Subsidiary
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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. ltlooks on
routergt I dont see it configured. ANOC It was.
Dont make me escalate to ltfamous persongt 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.
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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
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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_at_equinix.com or
• Most white papers (except this one) are on-line
  at http//www.equinix.com/
• Or ltgoogle search William B. Nortongt

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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