Peering Policies and Route Servers

Tue Apr 30 19:35:44 UTC 1996

At 2:12 PM 4/30/96, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
>...
>Setting aside the technological barriers to such an arrangement, an
>optimal configuration would be one in which all routing entities peer with
>one another at all available locations, so as to provide the shortest path
>between routing communities.  

I believe that the optimal configuration would actually involve only
one routing entity and no peering at all.   I'm pleased that instead 
we've implemented a model which (while not optimal) allows for a 
growing Internet service provider industry.   Solutions which are
optimal under one constraint tend to degenerate in the real world.

Shortest-exit routing and equivalent distributed peering is used to 
avoid settlements for transit costs.   If there's a strong demand 
for dissimiliar peering, then it's likely to appear with settlements.

/John