Variety, On The Media, don't understand the Internet

Wed May 15 13:02:56 UTC 2013

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 09:14:56PM -0400, Jean-Francois Mezei wrote:
> On 13-05-14 20:55, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> 
> > Since when is peering not part of the Internet? 
> 
> Yes, one car argue that an device with an IP address routable from the
> internet is part of the internet.
> 
> But when traffic from a cahe server flows directly into an ISP's
> intranet to end users, it doesn't really make use of the "Internet" nor
> does it cost the ISP transit capacity.

So it's only on the Internet if it uses a provider's transit capacity?
So if ISP1 and ISP2 are customers of ISP3 (and ISP3 is the only
provider-to-provider connection for ISP1 and ISP2), then traffic
between a customer of ISP1 and a customer of ISP2 is on the "Internet"? 
What if ISP1 and ISP2 then setup a private peering connection?  Is
traffic between ISP1 and ISP2 still on "the Internet", or is that
reserved for traffic over paid transit?

And if that's still "on the Internet", what happens if ISP1 then buys
IPS2?  Does the traffic between them cease to be "on the Internet" now
that it's the same company?

And, if you define "on the Internet" to mean "goes over paid transit",
then the only traffic that is on the Internet is traffic to ISPs who
have paid transit.  Traffic between end customers of two Tier 1
providers (defined as "providers who don't pay for any transit" for the
purposes of this message) would never be "on the Internet"?  

(I assume "transit", if that's your threshold, is "transit paid for by
a provider".  End user connections are essentially paid transit, even
though it's not typically called that, especially at the lower end.)

The point is:  I don't think you definition works.  Could post exactly
what your definition of "on the Internet" is (as opposed to just
enumerating examples of things you think are on the internet and things
you think are not on the Internet)?

     -- Brett