Mornin' Guy,
[] to what extent does a given exchange point (NAP/MAE/etc) constrain the performance that a user sees (in what a user thinks of as end- to-end). For example, an FTP could flow at 800 kb/s for a given pair of users, except that MAE-north is congested, so the FTP can only flow at 400 kb/s.
And what type of congestion is it, medium? switch? router? transport? I need to know what to fix.
[] to what extent does a given exchange point constrain the performance that a provider sees (in what a provider thinks of as end-to-end). For example, a given pair of backbones could sustain 20 Mb/s over a private interconnect with acceptable packet loss, but can only sustain 10 Mb/s over the Altoona NAP. From different perspectives, each of these notions of end-to-end has meaning. Would you want to consider one or the other or both in the panel?
It's the users who pay the bills, but it's only at the provider level that I (a self-appointed NANOG archetype) can act. Being vastly undereducated, I am forced to consider both at the moment. If I get smarter (fat chance), focus may be more appropriate. Feel free to have a bash (and that's what it takes sometimes) to educate me. randy