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An Overview of Peering; Benefits of Peering
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Andrew Ogilvie
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Managing Director, Xtraordinary Networks Ltd
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www.xtrahost.co.uk
Why am I here today? (Very briefly)
Xtraordinary Networks
Cloud Hoster - HQ in Edinburgh
Hosting in Edinburgh (Gyle) & London (Interxion)
Member of LINX since 2005
How does the Internet work?
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The Internet is a 'network of networks'
“Internet was designed to survive a nuclear
attack” - not true. But work did consider
robustness and survivability, including the
capability to withstand losses of large portions
of the underlying networks
What do we mean by a network?
What is a Network?
(According to the pedants on Wikipedia)
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An Autonomous System is a collection of
connected Internet Protocol (IP) routing prefixes
under the control of one or more network
operators that presents a common, clearly
defined routing policy to the Internet
What is a Network? (In plain English)
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Autonomous System – typically an ISP, hosting
provider, content provider, datacentre or large
organisation
Normally used to 'multi-home' – connect to
multiple Internet providers and/or for 'peering'
Approx 25,000 Autonomous Systems or
'Networks' form the Internet
Example Network AS Numbers
BBC AS2818
Brightsolid AS5564
BT (UK) AS2856
Hurricane Electric AS6939
IFB AS8902
Fluency AS56595
Janet AS786
Pulsant AS12703
Xtraordinary AS30827
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So how does one Network communicate with
one of the other 25,000 Networks around the
world?
Peering is part of the answer
Peering is where two networks exchange
traffic
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Either at an Internet Exchange (e.g. LINX)
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Or directly, between routers
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Larger networks will peer at lots of different
locations
Largest Global Internet Exchanges
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London – LINX
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Amsterdam – AMSIX
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Frankfurt – Decix
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What is an Internet Exchange?
Why would you peer?
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More control – direct exchange of traffic with
nobody else in the way
Improve quality – direct physical route, quicker
path, lower latency, no contention
Reduce costs – peering is normally cheaper
than buying 'IP transit' – the alternative to
peering
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Diversity and resilience – another route for
traffic to follow – spread the load
Technical Contacts - if there are problems you
can talk to the exchange tech staff or directly to
contacts at other networks
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If the exchange breaks - be in the know!
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Peering brings technical and marketing kudos
Austria
Telekom Austria TA AG
8447
Germany
Telefonica Deutschland GmbH
6805
Germany
Vodafone D2 GmbH
3209
Greece
OTEGlobe S.A.
12713
Iceland
Iceland Telecom
6677
Ireland
Eircom Group Plc
5466
Israel
013 Netvision Ltd
1680
Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia Berhad
4788
Romania
RCS & RDS S.A.
8708
Russia
CJSC Company TransTeleCom
20485
Russia
Golden Telecom
3216
South Africa
Internet Solutions (PTY) Ltd.
3741
South Korea
SK Broadband Co., Ltd.
9318
Turkey
Turk Telekom
9121
UAE
etisalat
8966
Latency – Round Trip Time
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Latency – London to Edinburgh 10-16
milliseconds
Computer gaming, video, VOIP, remote
desktop, applications – can be sensitive to
latency
An Exchange Can Be Where 'eyeballs' meet
'content'
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Eyeballs e.g. consumer ISPs – BT, Talk Talk,
Sky, Virgin Media, Mobile Networks
Content – iPlayer, Netflix, hosters, applications
Not All Peering Occurs on an Internet
Exchange
Peering across the LINX 'fabric' is known as public
peering.
The alternative is private peering directly between
networks - 'sling us a cable'
What do you need to peer on an exchange?
- An Autonomous System (AS) number
- A router
- Routes & traffic
- Some money
- Technical clue – BGP4 routing
You Don't Have to Peer With Everyone
Choice of
- Open Peering (with anyone, often via a routeserver)
- Selective Peering (pick your partners)
- Very Restricted Peering (Tier-1 big boys)
Why we welcome Scottish IX initiative
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Establishing a Scottish Internet Exchange is
long overdue
It makes technical sense for Scottish Internet
traffic to be 'peered off' in Scotland, not sent
down to London and back again
Growing rise in traffic – e.g. iplayer, downloads,
backups – maybe now is the time
Strategic economic benefits
Why have LINX run Scottish Internet
Exchange?
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Credibility
Brings large audience and contacts of existing
LINX members
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Technical experience
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Benefits of scale
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Legal, billing, admin covered
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Manchester exchange is active & growing
Thank-you
Any questions?
Andrew Ogilvie
AS30827
andrewo @ xtrahost.co.uk