Backbone IP network Economics - peering and transit

Fri Apr 23 17:47:30 UTC 2004

> If "direct connecting" != peering then definitely.
> 
> Maybe we need to say differentiate between:
> - Connected transit
> - Remote transit
> - Connected peering
> - Remote peering
> 
> And agree that, by default,
> transit ~= remote transit
> peering ~= direct peering

Without getting too complicated.

transit is always direct connection to a single AS, and indirect to all 
others. For simplicity's sake, single-homed customer ASes behind the 
transit AS are not considered apart from the transit AS. It is indirect
for the rest of the internet, including the sum of all peering (read: 
direct connection without any indirect connections) connectivity.

peering is a always direction connection to a single AS and no indirect 
connections are expected. Again, single-homed customer ASes are 
considered part of the peering AS.

ASes that can only be reached from a single AS can only be reached by 
those with a direction connection to the upstream AS.

---

This model [good or bad] allows people who pay for customer-only routes 
from a transit provider they can't settlement-free peer with be 
considered in the same breath as "true peers". For technology concerns, 
I think this is valid. For business reasons there is probably some 
difference.

DJ