Sean Donelan wrote:
One of the reasons why I asked for copies of old peering policies is because essentially every major provider has publically announced their policy at one time or another in the last decade. Saying "First" about anything should mean more than the last 18 months.
If we want to talk about first, I guess we should acknowledge that the first transmissions between UCLA, SRI and UCSB in Nov of '69 resulted from the first peering agreements ;-). But I digress... Sean, you're right in that there have been many major and minor peering battles, with lots of "publication" of policies at different times. The point I attempted to make, apparently unsuccessfully, was that in the current round, after the EU battle, Genuity posted its policy publicly to defuse any claims of the pot calling the kettle black in front of the politicos. And UUNet was effectively and finally forced to do the same recently. I assume no-one would argue that UUNet is the 800 lb gorilla... and based on the specifics of the policy, and the fact that it has been published to attempt to debunk the existence of an "old boy's network" in peering, they would find it very difficult to refuse peering arbitrarily. And I believe that this will a) create an environment and reason for regionals to merge, and b) prove to be a prelude to a Worldcom/UUNet acquisition binge, maybe including some "really big" networks. That's all. I went back and looked through the records, and found an announcement from John Sidgemore on May 13, 1997, discussing the change in peering you mention (http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwo/0513/inwo0001.html). However there was never a public document that I can remember, or locate. Did you find a public document with _specific_ requirements from UUNet in the past? My peering agreement outside of CIX with them in 1995 was verbal, with a hand shake. And G-d knows the traffic was unbalanced. Consider publishing your research and records. And perhaps we can get others to contribute. It is historic. I kick myself for not having kept the emails that flowed between the designated contacts of the core group connected to the CIX router in Santa Clara in the early 90's. The colorful language and entertaining flame wars between people who have become rich and famous (and some who have disappeared) were magical in hindsight. Bob Collett, Marty Schoffstall, Paul Vixie, Rick Adams, and Bill Washburn were regular folks back then ;-) -- Rodney Joffe CenterGate Research Group, LLC. http://www.centergate.com "Technology so advanced, even we don't understand it!"(R)