Internet Exchange Questions

Tue Mar 19 13:00:19 UTC 2002

### On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 12:46:57 +0100 (CET), Iljitsch van Beijnum
### <iljitsch at muada.com> casually decided to expound upon Jon Bennett
### <jonb200192865 at yahoo.com> the following thoughts about "Re: Internet
### Exchange Questions":

IvB> This hasn't happened. However, the reasoning still stands: why buy rack
IvB> space in a remote place and go through all kinds of trouble to install a
IvB> router there, if you can easily use some kind of switched/multiplexed
IvB> service from a telco and directly connect with your intended peering
IvB> partners over it, regardless of where everyone is located. (Hey, does this
IvB> sound like private interconnects?)

Among other reasons, the additive cost of all the loops starts to make this
practice prohibitive.  I believe Bill Norton's whitepaper, "Interconnection
Strategies for ISPs", illustrates some of the issues of interconnection
economics quite well and identifies where/when it makes sense to go into
exchange points or establish private interconnects.

IvB> This may still happen as ethernet becomes telco-friendlier. But as long as
IvB> you're in a location anyway, interconnecting with other networks who are
IvB> there as well is always cheaper and easier.

Yes, you can reach a certain economy of scale by consolidating carriers,
content providers, ISPs, etc under one roof.  Many exchange point providers
are banking on the atmosphere of a "public market" as a major selling point.

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