Tag: Peering

10 Reasons to peer: 1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

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10 Reasons to peer: 1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

 

Peering is a process in which two or more networks exchange traffic, and it can help you to make the most of your resources and expand your network for the benefit of your business.

From reduced cost to improved user experience, peering has many benefits for all sorts of organizations, from small hosting providers to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content delivery networks, and on to enterprises. In our new article series, we take a look at 10 different reasons why you should give peering a go. In the first installment of our “reasons to peer” series, we explain how peering can help you to make more money by offering a better service to your customers.

Shortest possible path to your target networks

If you are an ISP or a carrier, you provide your customers access to other networks. These customers can, and often do, have more than one provider, which puts you into direct competition in terms of delivering the customers’ traffic. If not steered manually by the customer, there is exactly one reason that decides who delivers the most traffic to the customer: The network who can deliver the shortest path wins the largest amount of traffic.

Peering helps you to shorten the paths to other networks compared to classical IP transit. With transit, it could well be that the customer’s target network sits behind multiple transit carriers, and if your competitor can offer a path with fewer hops, the traffic will go through their network. With peering, you can offer direct or shorter routes to the networks your customers are trying to reach.

More traffic, more revenue

So, to put it simply: By introducing peering and offering direct and shorter routes to networks, you win more traffic from your customers and competitors, which means more revenue for your business.

 

Peering Vs IP Transit

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The Internet means the interconnection of computer networks which is connected by a group of servers and networks the same way cities and towns are connected by roads and highways, all the networks on the Internet need some way to communicate. The two types of interconnection that exists are “IP Transit” and “Peering”.

IP transit: The term “transit” means the transportation of systems from one place to another. In networking, a large amount of data flows from one network to another. For example, it can be similar to the water pipe inside the wall that says ‘Internet this way’.

Peering: Peering is a process by which two Internet networks connect and exchange traffic to distribute traffic to each other’s customers without having to pay a third party to carry that traffic across the Internet for them. The routing protocol that allows peering between ISPs is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which is free and benefits all ISPs.

The difference between the two is when an organization connects to an ISP with the motive of accessing the whole internet, it is known as IP transit. It should not be jumbled up with connecting to an ISP over border gateway protocol (BGP) peering, peering is only for an organization’s prefixes and their directly connected peer.

Different levels of ISPs:

Numerous ISPs that operate within a city/town. The internet that we access at home is provided by Tier-3 ISPs. These are the most basic level of ISPs are subject to a limited area. ISPs that cover large population-based areas are Tier-2 ISPs and can cover the whole state or an entire country. Tier-1 ISPs are in-charge for global internet connectivity. These ISPs have non-disclosure agreements with each other for the transit of data. These may include the amount of data to be exchanged, the use of the equipment among others.

Tier -1: The Tier-1 ISP is a transit free network. They do not pay for internet transit as they are the transit providers. ISPs of different ranks pay them if they want to acquire internet transit services.

Tier -2: The Tier-2 ISP networks remunerate for internet transit to Tier-1 ISP to acquire some features of the internet. They then provide internet services to Tier-3 ISPs. These ISPs also have an arrangement for internet sharing with each other called peering.

Tier-3: The Tier-3 ISPs are at the lowest of the hierarchy and have to pay for transit as well as peering services.

To choose IP Transit or Peering?

The major difference between IP Transit and Peering is the tariff. While obtaining services from a transit service provider we need to reimburse the traffic settlement costs. But in peering the cost is negligible as the exchange of data is shared. The cost involved in peering is due to equipment, tools and power utilization among others.

Talking about IP transit, an SLA (Service Level Agreement) between the ISP and the transit provider is signed. The SLA states an agreement linking the two parties where the transit provider has to provide certain services to the ISP at a pre-defined charge.

Conclusion:

ISPs have an option of either peering with other networks or purchase IP Transit. On the other hand, some ISPs operate on both services – it is general for a large quantity of an ISP’s traffic requirement to be met through the use of IP Transit, and increased by peering where the conditions are satisfied.

A Complete Guide to an Internet Exchange Point

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What does an Internet Exchange Point do? How does it work? What benefits does it provide, and why are more and more ISPs turning to them? Find out here:

  • What Is An Internet Exchange Point?

An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a network point at which Internet service providers and Content Delivery Networks exchange Internet traffic between their networks. At an IXP, all participants’ networks interconnect via common switching equipment instead of via each other’s internal infrastructure. Each participant in an IXP generally has two connections to every other participant’s networks: one for incoming traffic from peers at a lower speed which will be delivered internally, and another for sending higher-speed traffic to peers external to that organization. Thus, an IXP allows Internet service providers to exchange high volumes of traffic among themselves without incurring these costs on their own infrastructure or purchasing transit services from any other entity. Inbound data can come at higher speeds without being throttled by low-speed customer connections, and outbound data can be delivered more quickly with fewer hops across different networks.

  • History Of IXPs

The growth of Internet traffic over time is staggering: At its inception, on October 29th, 1969—the moment you’ve likely heard about as being the birth of the Internet—less than 5 kilobytes of data was transmitted over ARPANET. Forty years later (as of November 2010), ARPANET alone transferred an astounding 10 petabytes of data per day! As such, ISP-to-ISP connections using IXPs are not something we need today because there isn’t enough capacity built into the Internet infrastructure to support them yet. This will change soon, though. As Web 2.0 and social media continue to grow in popularity and importance, ISPs will start building more connections between each other so that every device, no matter where it is physically located in global networks, can access all services.

  • Benefits Of An Internet Exchange Point

IXPs allow organizations with direct connections to exchange Internet traffic without paying for transit. Traffic can be transported between exchanges using any protocol and topology with no restrictions. They provide a more efficient route of network traffic by eliminating intermediate providers. An IXP also eliminates congestion and packet loss in networks caused by downstream providers at peering points. Another major benefit of IXP is network resilience.

  • How Does It Work?

An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a large and geographically distributed network of IP routers through which many Internet service providers (ISPs) exchange Internet traffic. This architecture allows local ISPs to connect and exchange traffic with each other rather than send all traffic out through their international links. Traffic from one IXP can be quickly switched to another if there is a link failure or if there are problems with any of the equipment in a particular IXP.

  • Where Are They Located?

The simplest way of defining it is as a physical location where Internet service providers (ISPs) interconnect, forming a point through which data can pass directly between them. So, essentially, Internet exchange points are places where ISPs come together—usually in a neutral, third-party building or at least not in their own facilities—to trade traffic freely and without being charged.

To conclude

Internet Exchange Points are a great way to exchange internet traffic between various networks that do not have direct connections. It can significantly lower latency and increase overall network performance. This write-up aims to give you a basic understanding of what an Internet Exchange Point is, how it works, and its benefits.

Who Provides Internet Service to Internet Service Providers – ISPs

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Who Provides Internet Service to Internet Service Providers – ISPs

You need to understand what an Internet Service Provider is before understanding who offers an internet service to ISPs or internet service providers.

Definition of Internet service provider:

An ISP (Internet service provider) is an organization that offers services for using and accessing the Internet. The structure of internet service providers can take many different forms, including commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or other types of privately owned businesses.

An ISP community is the only industry which helps us in utilizing the benefits of internet and the great opportunities it holds for us. It only requires a modem and router for getting started.

The services provided by the ISP can include,

  1. Internet transit
  2. Internet access
  3. Domain name registration
  4. Collocation
  5. Usenet service

Now the question is who provides the internet to the ISPs?

ISPs provides data connection to their subscribers by virtue of which they can connect smartphones and other gadgets by using Wi-Fi routers available for providing internet. Also, they establish a high bandwidth connection(s) to either an internet exchange, or other ISPs, or as a combination of both. ISPs can also connect directly to (content) service providers or even host their servers directly inside one of their facilities (common with Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc.)

Let’s discuss some common terms used.

Peering

Peering is a method that allows two networks to connect and exchange traffic directly without having to pay a third party to carry traffic across the Internet.

In order to acquire the most traffic, two different types of tier networks are typically used, along with peering and bridging. The majority of large businesses choose to set up their own peering connections.

This approach is used by reputable internet service providers. They offered the subscribers access to their own network at the time of ISP peering. The entire processing is free, and neither ISP is paid by the other.

Peering at Internet Exchange Point (IXP

There are two types of Peering, one is public peering and another is private peering.

Peering at Internet Exchange Point (IXP) –

What is Internet Exchange Point (IXP)

Internet Exchange Point is a position where many ISPs interconnect their network together. Probably several peering sessions can be established across a single IXP peering.

IP-Transit

Small data providers prefer for IP-transit to operate.

This is typically utilized in situations where the ISP is unable to connect to the outside world.

As a result, IP-transit reaches people that ISPs cannot. In general, it involves transporting internet traffic that exists between continents.

Thus, it can be connected to different types of ISP that is a paid service. The payment of the ISP depends on the amount of traffic attracted by the IP-Transit.

Network Tiers available in the market

       1. Tier 1

It is the huge network intended for offering the internet to ISPs. Therefore, it is a kind of transit free network that is required for peering with every other tier 1.

      2. Tier 2

This kind is required for peering with different type of networks, but still goes for payment settlement in order to reach some segment of the internet.

      3. Tier 3

Tier 3 is a type of network, which purchases the transit from different types of networks in order to reach the internet.

These tiers are available depending on the cost and quality. All the three kinds of tiers are known as the high performance networks.

The major goal of employing these levels is to direct customers toward the preferred providers. The easiest strategy to reduce costs while maintaining the top tier is in this way. These layers are important because they protect customer choice.

Consequently, the networks are perfect for allowing the users to provide the widest types of internet service provider.

Know Eveything About Internet Exchange In Delhi

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Delhi, India’s capital, is also a hub for many ISPs. With the rise in demand for internet services, the number of ISPs has risen dramatically in recent years.

As the number of ISPs grows, so does competition. So, what can an ISP do to outperform its rivals? The answer is simple: provide high-quality services.

The question now is, how can an Internet Exchange such as DE-CIX India assist ISPs? What are the services offered by DE-CIX India?

DE-CIX India is India’s Largest Interconnection Platform, with over 530 network connections. DE-CIX Mumbai is the Largest Interconnection Platform in Asia-Pacific, amongst 153 exchanges in 29 countries.

DE-CIX India operates Internet Exchange Points in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai, India. DE-CIX India is built on fully redundant MPLS switching networks on carrier-grade Juniper hardware and is located in top Internet Data Centers such as ST Telemedia, Netmagic Solutions, GPX Global Systems, Bharti Airtel, and others. DE-CIX India has Points of Presence in 16 Data Centers across the country.

DE-CIX, the operator of the World’s Largest Internet Exchange in Frankfurt (Germany), provides 11 terabits of data throughput per second. DE-CIX manages 30 Internet exchanges in Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and North America.

DE-CIX India provides the following services:

  1. Peering
  2. DirectCLOUD

DE-CIX Delhi provides networks with secure Internet Peering Solutions. Networks can improve their offerings by gaining access to our content-rich interconnection platform.

DE-CIX Peering offers you:

  1. Increased Latency
  2. Fast and Stable Speed
  3. Access to local peer-to-peer traffic
  4. Reduced Transportation Costs
  5. Increased Redundancy/Network Resiliency

Networks interconnected at DE-CIX India can easily bypass 85 percent of Internet Traffic due to direct connections with Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s), Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), Video streaming services (OTT & IPTV’s), DNS Root Servers, and Social Media networks, among others.

DE-CIX, the country’s only Legally Complaint Internet Exchange, has built a reputation for providing its customers with best-in-class services. DE-CIX Delhi is Delhi’s Peering Hub.

DE-CIX India has four Internet Exchange Points which provides continuous Peering services to our customers in Delhi:

  1. ST Telemedia Bangla Sahib.
  2. ST Telemedia VSNL Colony.
  3. Sify Greenfort, Noida.
  4. Web Werks, Noida.

With DE-CIX DirectCLOUD, you can give your customers a safe and guaranteed connection to cloud providers.

DirectCLOUD provides you with

  1. A single connection that gives you access to multiple cloud providers.
  2. A secure connection that bypasses the Internet; protected against DDoS attacks
  3. Guaranteed SLAs
  4. Measurable quality
  5. Stable packet routes

DE-CIX India supports the Digital India Initiative and believes that this revolution should reach the heart of the Capital. Our Delhi IX is committed to improve the people’s quality of life in Delhi through the use of a digital wave. We strive to provide you with our uninterrupted network service at our Internet Exchange Point in Delhi, with the goal of “Making Interconnection Easy, Anywhere.”

10 Reasons to peer: 3. Peering lowers latency

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In this third article in our “reasons to peer” series, we look at how peering lowers latency.

The shorter the trip, the better the latency

Latency is the delay between a user’s action and the response to that action from a website or an application – in networking terms the total time it takes for a data packet to make a round-trip. It is measured in milliseconds, and Internet quality depends on it. For example, for a website, even a 2-second delay in the loading time is sufficient to increase the bounce rate more than 100%!

Peering paths outperform transit paths for 91% of Autonomous Systems (ASs), meaning that peering offers the shortest path for data to travel, and therefore better latency.

Control your traffic streams

Peering gives you the control over where your network exchanges traffic with other important networks. You control where to handover the traffic (which city/which Internet Exchange) and you have control over your backhaul and the peering port usage. As the other network also has this control, together with your peering partner, you have a controlled end-to-end handling of your valuable traffic streams.

Catch-up with the first two articles in the series:

1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

2. Peering lowers your costs

DE-CIX Predictions: 4 trends for 2022

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Unfortunately, the pandemic still won’t loosen its grip on the world, and this winter again many activities will need to take place online – from Christmas shopping to events and celebrations. Reliable and fail-safe Internet connections with the lowest possible latency are thus becoming increasingly important – for our private lives, certainly, but above all for the economy as a whole. Here, a significant role is played by Internet Exchanges (IXs). They guarantee a smooth, secure, and fast exchange of data packets between networks of any size, ranging from city carriers to streaming providers and cloud service providers. Dr. Thomas King, CTO at DE-CIX, has identified 4 trends that will shape the connected world, the evolution of Internet trends, and the interconnection business in 2022:

1. Automation: Booking interconnection by click

Automation is no longer just a topic in manufacturing. More and more industries are developing solutions to automate routine IT tasks to become more flexible. Especially in uncertain times like we are currently experiencing, flexibility is a crucial asset. If, for example, a retailer’s business activities suddenly shift from the physical store to the online store, they must be able to react quickly so as not to alienate their customers with downtime. Internet Exchange operators are responding by offering the chance to manage interconnection services via both API and self-service portals. This means that the services at the Internet Exchange can be booked just as easily as computing power can be at the well-known cloud providers. This is possible because a large portion of the infrastructure at an Internet Exchange is now virtualized. But there are also automation approaches in the area of physical infrastructure. In addition to an API and a sophisticated self-service portal, DE-CIX in Frankfurt, for example, now has three patch robots in operation, which reposition cables fully automatically in just seconds, at any time of day.

2. A new era of data exchange

Never before has more data been exchanged than today. But problems remain: For example, when it comes to the confidential, bilateral exchange of large data packets, these are sometimes still stored on hard disks and physically transported. In the future, in the context of Gaia-X, high-performance and confidential data channels will be developed to address this issue. The basic idea behind the Gaia-X project is to create a sovereign European system for secure data exchange based on decentralized, interconnected infrastructure services. Another security-related service that will be increasingly in demand is Closed User Groups, which allow different actors to connect with their private networks via an IX. Closed User Groups enable enterprises to create their own interconnection environment – away from the public peering infrastructure. They can connect with select partners, suppliers, and customers present in multiple different locations, in order to share data securely and efficiently. The interconnection platform provides a direct connection between members of the Closed User Group, with optimized security measures and improved performance. This allows business partners or suppliers to quickly, securely, and directly exchange the data needed to develop or operate complex digital services – ranging from digital health services to autonomous driving. While cloud solutions facilitate data storage and handling, interconnection platforms are key to enabling many-to-many data exchange.

3. “Glocalization” is gaining traction

Various new technology applications such as virtual reality, cloud gaming, and e-health, not to mention connected and autonomous cars, are creating ever higher demands for the lowest possible latencies. Especially for mobility applications, extremely low latencies of less than one millisecond are crucial. Data does not move infinitely fast, so it is necessary for the nearest data center to be a maximum of around 80 kilometers away. A centralized Internet structure, where exchanges exist only in metropolitan areas, can no longer cope with these developments. So, we will see the hosting and processing of data move increasingly close to the edge. In other words, moving closer to the actual location of the consumers of this data and data processing. To some extent, this is already the case: An American streaming provider will host its new series in European data centers when it launches them there. Currently, however, this is only the case in large hubs. We are already seeing accelerated growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Internet Exchanges, such as the Ruhr-CIX in Germany, which will open up populous regions further removed from the existing digital hubs. In fact, Germany is leading the way here. However, this development will also continue globally, and Internet Exchanges will in future be found not only in the established digital metropolises, but also in regional centers, all over the world.

4. The car of tomorrow is connected

A stable data connection is becoming increasingly important for vehicles. Real-time information on the nearest charging station, for example, can be crucial for the operating radius of electric cars. At the same time, there are more and more advances in connected cars and autonomous driving, and these also bring high data demand and the need for low latency with them. Next year will therefore see a continuation of a trend that we are already seeing today: Automakers are becoming digital companies. They then have to decide which systems and services to outsource to big tech companies and which to build and operate in-house. In both cases, what is needed is a framework for data exchange between car and server and between different partners. This data exchange needs to be as fast as it is secure.

The bottom line:

We cannot predict the further course of the global Covid-19 pandemic. But we can say, looking at the last two years, that the growth of digital services has increased massively. Where direct, physical exchange is not possible, these services take its place. Content providers, network operators, Internet Exchanges and, increasingly, individual companies that were not previously part of the tech sector are working to provide the infrastructure for these services not only to people in digitally developed centers, but also in previously less well-served regions. The guiding principles are the basic needs of our digital age: Flexibility, security and speed.

10 Reasons to peer: 2. Peering lowers your costs

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In this second article in our “reasons to peer” series, we explain how peering can help you to lower your costs.

Companies need ever increasing amounts of bandwidth – video conferencing, a multitude of SaaS applications, video streaming, and the likes, all demand fast, efficient connections. And this comes at a cost.

Peering vs. transit

Most often, companies connect to the Internet via IP transit: you pay a network for Internet access. With peering, however, two (or more) networks exchange traffic cost-neutrally with each other. By connecting to an Internet Exchange, networks can peer with hundreds of networks.

In many cases, all around the world, the cost of traffic via peering at an Internet Exchange is also cheaper than using transit. Many organisations are therefore turning to peering to reduce costs.

Peering is about performance

Exceptions are of course possible, depending on your region and on the volume of usage of peering and transit ports. But beyond the cost discussion, peering is all about performance. Keep an eye on the follow-up articles in this series, in which we look at the performance-related benefits of peering.
You can read the previous article in the Reasons To Peer series below :

10 Reasons to peer: 3. Peering lowers latency

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In this third article in our “reasons to peer” series, we look at how peering lowers latency.

The shorter the trip, the better the latency

Latency is the delay between a user’s action and the response to that action from a website or an application – in networking terms the total time it takes for a data packet to make a round-trip. It is measured in milliseconds, and Internet quality depends on it. For example, for a website, even a 2-second delay in the loading time is sufficient to increase the bounce rate more than 100%!

Peering paths outperform transit paths for 91% of Autonomous Systems (ASs), meaning that peering offers the shortest path for data to travel, and therefore better latency.

Control your traffic streams

Peering gives you the control over where your network exchanges traffic with other important networks. You control where to handover the traffic (which city/which Internet Exchange) and you have control over your backhaul and the peering port usage. As the other network also has this control, together with your peering partner, you have a controlled end-to-end handling of your valuable traffic streams.

Catch-up with the first two articles in the series:

1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

2. Peering lowers your costs

10 reasons to peer: 4. Peering increases throughput to other networks

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Peering gives you greater control over routing, resulting in improved network performance and happy end users. In this fourth article in the “reasons to peer” series, we explain how this works.

When data is transported via public transit carriers, the data flows via a private network interconnect (PNI) between the involved carriers. PNIs mean cost, work, maintenance, and organization between those carriers, and upgrades of PNIs between large carriers do not always happen in time. Running your traffic over saturated PNIs can nevertheless work for a while, even without a noticeable latency or loss of quality – depending on the case.

But using a saturated PNI does have an effect on the end-user experience. If your users are streaming video or online gaming, it can result in many buffering interruptions and not very happy users.

Ensured bandwidth

With peering, you are in control of your points of interconnection where both you and the Internet Exchange you are connected to ensure enough port bandwidth. If you have enough peering bandwidth, your users have almost unlimited possible throughput to the other networks. For Internet Service Providers (ISPs), for example, the limit in this case is just the service the user bought from you, and not the overcrowded PNI traps of Tier 1 or Tier 2 carriers you are using.
You can read the previous articles in the Reasons To Peer series below :