Cogent/Level 3 depeering

Wed Oct 5 19:46:12 UTC 2005

On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Jeff Shultz wrote:

> Matthew Crocker wrote:
>> 
> While I realize that the "nuke survivable" thing is probably an old wives 
> tale, it seems ridiculous that "the Internet" can't adjust by routing any 
> packets that used to go directly from Cogent to Level 3 though some 3rd (and) 
> 4th (and) 5th set of providers that are connected in some fashion to both...

If agreements are in place with those other providers to carry the 
traffic, then sure.

Remember that when backbones peer with each other, they typically (and as 
normally dictated by peering policies on both sides) only announce their 
own routes and the routes of their downstream customers and agree not to 
announce a default route to each other.  They do not announce a full 
routing table to each other.  Upshot: When provider X de-peers provider 
Y, single-homed customers of either provider will likely have problems 
reaching single-homed sites of the other.

Some of it comes down to the mob-rule mentality.  The hope (though not 
often publicized :-)  ) is that the de-peerER will force the de-peerEE 
into buying transit from them to get the de-peerEE's customers to stop 
calling in saying "I can't get to site BLAH - FIX THIS!"  The de-peerEE 
(or their customers) may opt to try their case in the court of public 
opinion and try to get the de-peerER to reverse their stance and stop 
being 'the bad guy' :-)

Irresistable force, immovable object.  I now return you to your regularly 
scheduled programming.

jms