-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Mikael Abrahamsson Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 10:22 AM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: concern over public peering points [WAS: Peering point speed publicly available?]
On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr. wrote:
Does the person that sweeps the floor do so for free? And supply
broom?
The marginal cost of half a rack being occupied by an IX switch in a multi-hundred-rack facility is negiglabe. Yes, it should carry a cost of a few hundred dollars per month in "rent", and the depreciation of the equipment is also a factor, but all-in-all these costs are not high and if an IX point rakes in $200k a year that should well compensate for
the these
costs.
-- Mikael Abrahamsson email: swmike@swm.pp.se
At the Seattle Internet Exchange a, granted, smaller peering exchange, you have to account for the following costs (and, mind you, this list is not exhaustive). 1) 1 Rack 2) Space for the rack in a secure facility 3) AC for the equipment 4) Power for the equipment (including line and UPS) 5) Fiber and Copper runs to the facility for cross-connects 6) Terminations of (5) 7) O&M of space and gear 8) Layer 8 and 9 negotiation of (1) through (7) to keep costs down. That's not a trivial set of expenses, particularly when there are limitations in place to recovering costs via non-cash methods, such as advertising the hosting of the exchange. Thankfully, there is some altruism on the behalf of several parties that allow the exchange to continue providing "zero cost" connections to participants. I hardly think the cost of their time and effort is "marginal". Mike NoaNet