interconnection costs

Tue Dec 22 16:44:06 UTC 2015

Hi NANOG

We are a group of researchers and our focus is on the economy of
interconnection in the Internet. My question is mainly about the various
costs of an AS establishing a connection with another AS, including the
costs charged by the colocation providers. I am familiar with most of the
connection options such as public peering on IXP, and private peering
through xconnects. My understanding is that in addition to the cost of
transit that the smaller AS pays to the larger AS, in the former you pay a
monthly fee to establish a link to the switching fabric and then you can
connect to as many ASes that are member in the IXP, and in the later you
need to pay for as many xconnects that you need to connect to as many ASes
that you plan to peer with. Obviously in both cases there is the cost of
being in the colocation and renting a rack or whatever. What are the other
costs involved? How should the AS reach the colocation center in the first
place? I don't think every network can dig a hole an lay cables. Who should
they pay to get from one PoP to another? Do ASes have to pay for xconnect
to connect their PoP in a data center to the rest of their network?

I think there is no single answer as different businesses may have
different pricing models. I hope the discussion can help me understand the
whole ecosystem a little bit better.

Best Regards
Reza Motamedi (R.M)
Graduate Research Fellow
Oregon Network Research Group
Computer and Information Science
University of Oregon