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. Danny (just wondering)
At 09:02 PM 7/16/97 +0000, Danny wrote:
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.
In my conference presentations on this subject, I divide Internet service providers into three categories based on peering relationships: 1) The True Peer Backbones are those ISPs that carry the bulk of the Internet access traffic, run default free, and expect everyone else to buy transit from themselves or another True Peer. 2) The Near Peer Networks are ISPs that are trying to complete their peering agreements but are getting default transit somewhere. The Pseudo Peer Networks are running those thin no-money-down ATM "backbones" and are mostly web farmers pretending to be backbones or former bandwidth resellers that are trying to move from paying for transit to free peering. 3) The Bandwidth Resellers, many of whom are former PC BBS sysops, system integrators or computer retailers cum local ISPs, have a legitimate business buying T1s and T3s and reselling frame relay and T1s and dial access. A True Peer is any backbone that all the other True Peers consider a peer. I know it's circular, but it works in Hollywood. The bandwidth resellers don't have a beef with the True Peers since they and the True Peers are playing by the same rules (few big default-free transit backbones and lots of resellers). It's the Near Peers, playing by the same rules as the True Peers and Resellers, that are building infrastructure and backbones, trying to become True Peers and these worry the True Peers as emerging competition and more routing work. The Pseudo Peers try to appear as worthy Peers and get the True Peers in a snit, because they view the Pseudo Peers as parasites, never meaning to build backbones, sucking away their rightful web hosting clients and local access customers with reseller prices. --Kent
At 07:26 PM 7/20/97 -0700, Kent W. England wrote:
1) The True Peer Backbones are those ISPs that carry the bulk of the Internet access traffic, run default free, and expect everyone else to buy transit from themselves or another True Peer.
Agreed. To sum it up: It seems that the general use of 'tiers' is based on who carries a network's IP traffic. .A first tier provider does not purchase transit from anyone .A second tier provider buys from a first tier .A third tier provider buys from a second tier provider and so on... generally there are a few first tiers who peer at many locations and many second tiers who are at one or two IXs and have a transit agreement, and zillions of people who buy T1s and T3s and resell.
On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Rod Nayfield wrote:
Agreed. To sum it up:
It seems that the general use of 'tiers' is based on who carries a network's IP traffic. .A first tier provider does not purchase transit from anyone
Purchase, or exchange. I.E. I was getting some transit from a customer, but I did not pay for it. So to be a first tier your routes must only be announced by you, and no other AS. I am not sure if CIX should count or not. Netrail was using CIX to get to 1 provider that was not peering, we now have peering with them, and are going to kill our CIX connection. I am not sure if this should count as being a tier one or not. It soon will not be a issue because MCI, UUNET, ANS, Sprint, Netrail and others are pulling from CIX.
.A second tier provider buys from a first tier
Yes, but they also may have NAP connection, and may even have a nationwide backbone. There are many second tier providers who have nationwide DS3 networks, and peer at many naps, but still have a small amount of transit to get to places they can't get peering setup with. Most of them want to be first tier, but should not be counted.
.A third tier provider buys from a second tier provider and so on...
generally there are a few first tiers who peer at many locations and many second tiers who are at one or two IXs and have a transit agreement, and zillions of people who buy T1s and T3s and resell.
Nathan Stratton President, NetRail,Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phone (888)NetRail NetRail, Inc. Fax (404)522-1939 230 Peachtree Suite 500 WWW http://www.netrail.net/ Atlanta, GA 30303 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. - Psalm 33:16
participants (4)
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Danny -
Kent W. England -
Nathan Stratton -
Rod Nayfield