On Wed, 19 Apr 2000, Jeff Lentz wrote:
I apologize if this question is not relevant to your discussions, but Susan Harris, e-mail address srh@merit.edu, suggested that I ask it here...
The peering table that appears on the London Internet Exchange web site www.linx.net/peering.html...... is this something that can be generated for different peering locations? Also with this information would it be possible to create a table that lists companies and the cities that they are peering in? Any insight would be of great help to me thank you.
The peering matrix at LINX doesn't necessarily mean that any parties shown to peer actually do it across the LINX exchange point fabric itself, they could be PIs anywhere in the world or peerings at other IXPs. Why is this? Well, take a read of the footnotes: "This table is generated from objects in the RIPE and RA databases. If there is something missing or wrong then please refer to the original data in the databases. The information given here can apply to peering arrangements between members anywhere in the world, and is not limited to the traffic flowing through the LINX." It's basically a script which pulls all the necessary aut-num objects from RIPE and RADB and builds a table out of the as-in/as-out declarations. It's just taking information which is available in the public domain (if you know how to drive a whois client) and munging it into a tabluar form. So, in response to JSB's comment about confidentiality of peering arrangements: Yep, sure, you can be confidential about where you interconnect, at what speed and choice of media, should you choose. But, you can't be confidential about who you are peering with, because the RA/RIPE will tell anyone with a bit of clue. Unless, of course, you aren't declaring these "top secret" peerings in the relevant routing database(s), which is probably a bad thing [tm], but that's my personal view on it. Also, some locations, such as LINX and PAIX, do have publically accessible member info on their websites, so you get a good idea of who is connected at that exchange point. There are, as JSB suggests, plenty of tools out there to help you with routing/peering questions. This is me with my own hat on, BTW, not my LINX engineer hat. Mike