BBN Peering issues

Fri Aug 14 14:43:02 UTC 1998

The following is purely my opinion and has nothing to do with my employer,
although in this case, my employment situation prevents me from saying
what I really think should be said.

There are a lot of things that should be said here.  However, due to NDAs
and company policies, I am not allowed to say most of them.  However, I
will say this:

	1.	At least one provider being cut off is a peer.
	2.	BBN's customers will feel pain when that provider is cut off.
	3.	That provider's customers will also feel pain.
	4.	BBN has not worked with that provider to resolve this privately
		under NDA.
	5.	The NDA which was part of the soon-to-be former peering arrangement
		prohibits the disclosure of many details that would be important
		here.
	6.	I suspect it will take much more than an hour for BBN to resolve
		this once they have taken the actual step of disconnecting any
		of these providers.

Owen

> Well basically you need to think of it like this. If the providers that
> are getting cut were actually "peers" of BBN, then BBN would feal the
> pain, in fact they are not "peers". BBN can cut them off their network and
> will not feal a thing. BBN customers will still be able to reach the cut
> ISPs from their transit providers. If the providers were "peer" then when
> BBN tried to cut them they both would feal the pain and BBN would most
> likley turn it back up in a hour or so.
> 
> > Rather than limit this issue to within the confines of private
> > communication, I would like to see it carried out as a very vocal and
> > lively public one.  That way, the general public will be able to make an
> > educated decision regarding whether or not to purchase transit from
> > BBN/GTE, in light of this.
> 
> Well, in the past this stuff was resolved under NDAs. If you don't see a
> lot of ISPs talking then most likely BBN just had them sign a NDA and
> worked something out. 