Asia Pacific Peering Guidebook Reviewer Request

Wed Jun 16 16:49:01 UTC 2004

Hi all -

If you have no interest in Internet Peering in Asia, read no further. 
Otherwise,...

Over the last year I have been working with the Peering Coordinator 
Community, particularly those that have built into and throughout Asia, to 
document what is *different* about peering in Asia as compared to say the 
U.S. and Europe.  In February of this year I pulled together a group of 
Peering Coordinators for the APRICOT Peering Track. I asked them to share 
Peering processes that they found different, interesting, counter 
intuitive, or unexpected. This white paper documents the lessons learned 
and insights gained from Peering Coordinators experienced with peering in Asia.

The Asia Pacific Peering Guidebook follows the path set by "The Evolution 
of the US Peering Ecosystem" white paper that I presented at the last 
NANOG, but focuses on the common dynamics and experiences that folks shared 
with me over the last year and at the APRICOT Peering Track. First, the 
paper documents what I call the "Foreign Tier 1 Peering Dynamic" that casts 
a Tier 1 ISP in one Peering Ecosystem as a Tier 2 ISP in another. We focus 
on the motivations, the reasons why this occurs as ISPs expand globally.

Next, Peering Coordinators shared five reasons that they expanded 
into/within Asia:
1) Incumbent Tier 1 ISPs to peer their routes outside their home market
2) Meet US Tier 1 ISP Peering Prerequisites
3) Customers want them in Asia
4) Global Marketing Benefits
5) Sell transit in a more attractive transit market

using four methods of interconnection:
1) Extend into foreign country
2) reciprically peer in each others coountry
3) Half-Circuit peering
4) Buy an ISP with Tier 1 peering in the foreign ecosystem

The Peering Coordinators shared nine lessons, things they wish they had 
known before expanding into Asia:
1) Tier 1 ISPs will not want to peer in their home market
2) There are several challenges peering in Asia
2a) Peering Process is different - peering@ does not uniformly work
2b) Many language zones
2c) Many time zones - logisitics issues here
2d) Oceans add cost, latency - transpacific transport prices estimated in 
the paper
2e) local loops still a major expense
2f) transit prices highly variable across countries in Asia - transit 
street prices quoted
3) Creative peering deals
4) Watch for Inadvertent Tromboning
5) Local Presence is required
6) Separation of Int'l Transit from Domestic Transit in some markets
7) Content that transcends the language barrier is not allowed to be hosted 
in country
8) No true regional content in Asia
9) Content Peering works in Asia
10) Understand the Internet Peering Ecosystem prior to building in

On this last point, the paper enumerates several data points including 
naming the Tier 1's, the emerging broadband players, the peering 
inclinations, etc. for Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore. Some of the 
Yahoo!Broadband activities for example in Japan show that some places in 
Asia are leap-frogging the US in terms of next-gen access bandwidth. How 
would you like 40Mbps DSL access for $50/mo or FTTH for $100/mo?

I'm at the point where I'd like to do a dozen or so final paper 
walk-throughs, where I email the white paper and walk interested folks 
through the paper to solicit comments and suggestions.  I've found that 
talking people through the paper is this is the most effective way for me 
to make sure the paper (and subsequent presentation) flow well, and also 
increases the likelihood of me getting some feedback.

If you have any interest in the topic and can spare about 30 minutes for a 
walkthrough over the next few weeks, send me a note and let's schedule a 
time I can talk you through the paper. I'm also planning a group walk 
through (a concall basically) towards the end of the month.

As with all the Peering White Papers, this one will be made freely 
available to the community when it is finished.

Bill

Here are the other Peering White Papers that are available (google for 
"William B. Norton" to find them on the web, or email wbn at equinix.com with 
the white paper title in the subject line and I'll send you the latest 
version of the white paper.)

1.      Interconnection Strategies for ISPs documents two dominant methods 
ISPs use to interconnect their networks. Over 200 ISPs helped create this 
white paper to identify when Internet Exchange Points make sense and the 
Direct Circuit interconnect method makes sense. Financial Models included 
in the paper quantify the tradeoffs between these two methods. All relevant 
data points are footnoted as to source.
2.      Internet Service Providers and Peering answers the questions: "What 
is Peering and Transit? What are the motivations for Peering? What is the 
ISP Peering Coordinators Process for obtaining  peering? What are criteria 
for IX selection?"
3.      A Business Case for Peering builds upon the previous white papers 
but focuses on the questions important to the Chief Financial Officer: 
"When does Peering make sense from a financial standpoint? When do all the 
costs of Peering get completely offset by the cost savings?"
4.      The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook builds on the previous 
white papers by asking the Peering Coordinators to share the "Tricks of the 
Trade", methods of getting peering where otherwise they might not be able 
to get peering. These 20 tactics range from the straight forward to the 
obscure, from the clever to the borderline unethical. Nonetheless, Peering 
Coordinators might be interested in field-proven effective ways of 
obtaining peering in this highly controversial white paper.
5.      The Peering Simulation Game finishes up my half day Peering 
Tutorial by engaging the audience in the role of the Peering Coordinator. 
Each ISP in turn rolls the dice, expands their network, collects revenue 
for each square of customer traffic, and pays transit fees to their 
upstream ISP. They quickly learn that if they peer with each other, the 
costs of traffic exchange are much less, but they need to negotiate how to 
cover the costs of the interconnect. ISP Peering coordinators have 
commented on how close the peering simulation game is to reality in terms 
of the dialog that takes place.
6.      Do ATM-based Internet Exchange Points Make Sense Anymore? Applies 
the "Business Case for Peering" financial models to ATM and Ethernet-based 
IXes using current market prices for transit, transport, and IX Peering Costs.
7.      The Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystem, introduces and focuses 
on several fundamental changes in the Peering Ecosystem spurred by several 
events following the telecom collapse of 1999/2000.
8.      The Art of Peering: The IX Playbook follows the same tact as The 
Peering Playbook; we first introduce the framework theory of how and why 
IXes are valuable from an economic perspective. We then enumerate about a 
dozen tactics IXes use to get over the "Start Up Hump", to build a strong 
critical mass of participants, and finally, defense tactics to maintain 
that population. (To be released at a future date.)