Transit and Paid Peering Exchanges

Thu Oct 9 07:27:24 UTC 2003

    > In general, enterprises are not willing to peer the way that ISPs are - that
    > is, show up, and try to get some peering in a speculative fashion. Most are
    > more comfortable showing up at a site with the expectation to pay, and a
    > good idea of exactly who they can pay to get the services they need
    > (basically, transit, not peering). They also tend to want centralized
    > accounting, and sometimes a route server and a high degree of technical
    > assistance are helpful. The average IXP does not even come close to meeting
    > these requirements, sadly.

There's been talk about running a subscription-based peering brokerage
service on the west coast, primarily aimed at Asian carriers and networks,
in exactly the fashion you're describing, and that talk has gone on for
quite a few years, ever since the first few Japanese carriers showed up at
the PAIX and had trouble getting peering because of communication (people
not technical) issues.  The Asia Pacific Internet Consortium nearly got
it done, but attempts so far seem to have kind of petered out.  I'd be
interested in seeing what you find out, as would a lot of other people,
I'm sure.  Can you propose it as a talk to Susan Harris, for a future
NANOG meeting, if your results are going to be public?

                                -Bill