Cogent/Level 3 depeering

Patrick W. Gilmore patrick at ianai.net
Wed Oct 5 22:01:56 UTC 2005


On Oct 5, 2005, at 5:11 PM, Daniel Roesen wrote:

> Yes, but Cogent actively risked that that this happens, and L3 did  
> only
> took active steps to sever that DIRECT relationship, but does (AFAIK)
> nothing to prevent connectivity _at_all_ (which Cogent IMHO does  
> claim).
> They just make it more costly for Cogent. Cogent doesn't want to pay
> the price, so no connectivity.
>
> OF COURSE L3 could start to buy transit... but as a real tier 1 they
> are prolly in the position that they won't need to.
>
> A real tier 1 depeering another tier 1 would be a completely different
> story though. :-)

This is silly.

"I don't buy transit, but you buy partial transit, so if I shut down  
the interconnection links (SFI or otherwise), you should buy more  
transit to get to me."  HUH?  B does not in any way follow A.

This is no different than MCI de-peering Sprint.  Both sides knows  
what will happen long before they do it.


> Given that Cogent was not yet on the
> same "eye level" (no pun intended) with Level 3, I as a hypothetical
> Cogent customer would blame Cogent to not having made provisions for
> that case. Again, I said that from the perspective of a Cogent
> customer knowing "the hierarchy" out there.

I'm very confused by what you said there.  WTF has "the hierarchy"  
got to do with my bits getting to you?

Better question: As a "hypothetical Level 3 customer", would you  
blame Cogent or L3?


"Tier One" is marketing.  Even the technical idea of "buys no  
transit" is BS.  It might be well defined, but that doesn't make the  
term _useful_.

Cogent and L3 had _no_ interconnectivity besides the direct peering  
relationship.  L3 knew it, Cogent knew it.  L3 made a decision to  
sever that direct relationship, and bifurcation ensued.  This was not  
only not a surprised, it was expected.  Whether Cogent is a "tier  
one" or not is irrelevant to the decision, and the resulting effects.


When you can't reach the web / mail / etc. server you need, does it  
matter if your network is big or small, tier one or tier five?  Not  
to me, I'm just interested in getting packets from point A to point  
B.  From your posts, it sounds like you are OK with buying partial  
transit at full price - as long as you buy it from a "Tier One"  
provider.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick



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