Somehow I don't think the Tier 1 "definition" will ever be defined and agreed upon. Marketing depts. throughout the industry have used it and all come up with their own definition to suit their network. Is it the amount of exchange points one is at? The amount of "true" private peerings one has (not transit lines)? Is it the size of ones backbone in speed or geographic diversity? The size of the routes propogated? Not having a transit provider? Being connected to CIX? I can argue for all of these, and I think everyone can that operates a network. Therefore, being a subjective definition that was never clearly decided upon by any reasonable process makes it about as useful as Mae-West's UPS system. The Tier 1 lingo is disappearing quickly--I hope it proceeds at that pace to disappear completely. Hopefully useful terms can be devised to describe the networks in a objective, technical fashion, not spun to hell and back by our various marketing folks. Rob Exodus Communications Inc.
Does everyone agree with this, it's the only response I have received thus far (and according to the list, the sender works for a tier 1 provider).
[snip]
Tier 1: _Owns the fiber_, Multiple coast to coast paths of significant bandwidth I don't think OWNS THE FIBER applies, but the rest is valid. I think a major connotation to Tier 1 is "DEFAULT FREE"... That is they do not need a default route to handle routes they don't receive through peering relationships.
Tier 2: Reseller, Major connections (DS3/OC3) to multiple tier 1 providers. Possibly: Major connections to one (1) tier 1 provider. Tier 3: Everybody else.
Anyone care to take a stab at what places a provider in a given "tier-group"? Seems to me as though the large(st) providers are a bit harsher (naturally) than the smaller providers.