RE: Peering Table Question

["Marcellus Smith" <msmith () broadbandoffice net>]

It is possible for a network which specializes in web hosting to become a
tier-1 by also getting eyeballs on their network.   This is a good way to
balance things.

In most cases, your best peers will have "very balanced traffic flows".

-----------------------
Marcellus Smith
Broadband Office, Inc.
marcellus () bbo com
(703) 748-7629 Office
(703) 395-4275 Cell


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu]On Behalf Of I
Am Not An Isp
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 9:55 AM
To: Randy Bush; Peter Galbavy
Cc: nanog () nanog org
Subject: Re: Peering Table Question



At 06:29 AM 4/24/00 -0700, Randy Bush wrote:

> > May I conjecture, in the light of the current discussion, that a "tier
1"
> > ISP is one which makes a net profit from "peering" and a "tier 2" is one
> > that does not ? Or is it that a "tier 2" ISP has real customers ?
>
> teir-1s don't pay for routing to anywhere.  tier-2s pay for routes from
> tier-1s and may also pay for transit.

The CTO of GTEI/BBN claimed that if their traffic flows were > 2:1 outbound
to any network, they would pay the "peer" network for the imbalance.  I do
not know if their traffic is that unbalanced to any other network, but it
is definitely a possible scenario.  Would that make AS1 a "tier 2"?

Why does the fact that a network is willing to pay peers for an obviously
inequitable traffic balance make that network a non-tier-1?  Why does that
not just make them fair and reasonable?

Of course, there are other ways of being "fair", such as the network with
the web sites offering to carry the traffic long haul.  But that would
require an exchange of MEDs, something which you have personally claimed
was a Bad Thing for years.


So please help me understand how it is possible for a network which
specializes in web hosting to become a tier-1?  Even if it had a gigantic
percentage of traffic on the Internet, other networks would still want it
to pay for the traffic imbalance.

Or does the definition of "tier-1" now include "balanced traffic flows"?


> randy

TTFN,
patrick

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