I operate the exchange point in the Kansas City area so I'll answer your questions based on how we do it. 1) Is a private AS typically used for the exchange side of the session? No. Each participant uses their own ASN. 2) Are RFC1918 IPs typically used for the p2p links into the exchange? No. Exchanges typically have their own IPs assigned by their RIR and pass them out to the members for connections to the exchange. 3) Do peering exchanges typically remove their AS from the path advertised to exchange participants? There is no peering directly with the exchange in a private link. In the case of peering with a route server on the exchange then it is considered best practices to do so. 3a) If no: Do participants typically preference exchange-learned routes over other sources? Yes. As far as I know all our members set routes learned through the exchange fabric higher than anything else. That's kind of the point as exchange traffic is free so you always want to use it first. 4) Do exchanges typically support the following address families? IPv4 Multicast IPv6 Unicast IPv6 Multicast No Yes No In exchanges where a route server is employed: 4) Do participants have a p2p link into a simple routing environment then multi-hop to a route server? No. The route server is typically accessed like any other peer on the fabric. 5) I see that Bird, OpenBDGd, and Quagga are all options for route server software. Does one of those packages stand out as the clear current choice for production peering exchanges? We use Quagga. It's what we we're most familiar with and we haven't had any issues.
I very much appreciate any responses.
No Problem. Feel free to stop by and check out our fabric for yourself. Aaron