Survey: Peering Staffing Levels
Please forgive the non-operational content. I'm interested in getting some idea of the level of staffing provided by NSPs and ISPs in their peering departments. In fact, I've been asked by my management to provide as much info about such levels as possible, without a need to disclose the identity of any responding company. If you have time, and wish to participate, I'd sure appreciate it. I will provide a summary of the responses to respondents. No identifying information need be provided. Get a disposable email account at Hotmail or Yahoo if you'd like to be really anonymous. Any question may be skipped if you wish. I appreciate your assistance! DO NOT RESPOND TO THE LIST! 1. Do your peering staff members do peering negotiations and planning only, or do they also do peering-related hands-on router engineering? ___ planning and negotiation only ___ planning, negotiation, and hands-on router stuff ___ something other than these two choices: ______________________________________________________________ 2. What is the size of your peering staff? ___ full-time staff members ___ part-time staff members 3. Do you feel this staffing level is appropriate? ___ too high ___ just right ___ too low 4. What is the ballpark aggregate exchange volume in megabits/second at peak, for your AS, or for all of the ASses for which you are responsible? ___ mb/s @ peak 5. What is the primary location of the majority of your peering department's staff members? ___ USA ___ North America other than USA ___ Europe ___ Central or Western Asia ___ Eastern or Southeastern Asia ___ Australia/NZ ___ South America ___ Africa 6. Approximately how many private or public peers does your network exchange traffic with? ___ private peers ___ public peers 7. What percentage volume of your network's total exchange volume is exchange via peering (as opposed to being exchanged via transit)? ___% is exchanged via peering Again, thank you very much for your participation. Cheers, --Dwight Ernest
On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Dwight Ernest wrote:
I'm interested in getting some idea of the level of staffing provided by NSPs and ISPs in their peering departments. In fact, I've been asked by my management to provide as much info about such levels as possible, without a need to disclose the identity of any responding company.
Forgive me if I'm just used to small companies, but why would you really need more than one full time person (with an assistant possibly) in your peering department? Sure, the job requires a very specific skill set (something along the lines of an engineer with an MBA), but the day-to-day interactions and changes regarding peering would seem to be minimal. In fact, my impression seems to be that you don't really need anybody on staff to not return emails to peering@, which is seemingly how most providers deal with it. :) Note: I have absolutely no experience or data to base my assumptions on, so don't slap me too hard. Andy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Andy Dills 301-682-9972 Xecunet, LLC www.xecu.net xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access
Andy, What I have seen (and what I have in fact done) was handle the peering negotiations, usually this needs to be an executive level person. In fact Dwight is right, it's usually someone that understands the vision of the network, and the company moving forward, with some skill to help translate this into a business case for the CFO types. You then have a peering implementation engineer that will coordinate the config of the routers and provisioning of the circuits, or VPI VCIs etc etc. The implementation person may actually have an assistant. The training is considered valuable and it provides a measure of backup. Nowadays you almost need a regulatory person also. If I were prone to humor I might say some ISPs lately have DE-peering engineer.... David
On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Dwight Ernest wrote:
I'm interested in getting some idea of the level of staffing provided by NSPs and ISPs in their peering departments. In fact, I've been asked by my management to provide as much info about such levels as possible, without a need to disclose the identity of any responding company.
Forgive me if I'm just used to small companies, but why would you really need more than one full time person (with an assistant possibly) in your peering department?
Sure, the job requires a very specific skill set (something along the lines of an engineer with an MBA), but the day-to-day interactions and changes regarding peering would seem to be minimal. In fact, my impression seems to be that you don't really need anybody on staff to not return emails to peering@, which is seemingly how most providers deal with it. :)
Note: I have absolutely no experience or data to base my assumptions on, so don't slap me too hard.
Andy
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Andy Dills 301-682-9972 Xecunet, LLC www.xecu.net xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access
-- David Diaz Bellsouth MIX dave@smoton.net [Email] pagedave@smoton.net [Pager] Smotons (Smart Photons) trump dumb photons
Even with large providers, if you peer with them, you generally know the peering coordinator by name. In some cases, you know their assistant by email. :) Deepak Jain AiNET -----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of Andy Dills Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 4:47 PM To: Dwight Ernest Cc: NANOG@merit.edu Subject: Re: Survey: Peering Staffing Levels On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Dwight Ernest wrote:
I'm interested in getting some idea of the level of staffing provided by NSPs and ISPs in their peering departments. In fact, I've been asked by my management to provide as much info about such levels as possible, without a need to disclose the identity of any responding company.
Forgive me if I'm just used to small companies, but why would you really need more than one full time person (with an assistant possibly) in your peering department? Sure, the job requires a very specific skill set (something along the lines of an engineer with an MBA), but the day-to-day interactions and changes regarding peering would seem to be minimal. In fact, my impression seems to be that you don't really need anybody on staff to not return emails to peering@, which is seemingly how most providers deal with it. :) Note: I have absolutely no experience or data to base my assumptions on, so don't slap me too hard. Andy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Andy Dills 301-682-9972 Xecunet, LLC www.xecu.net xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access
Andy, At a larger ISP, you typically need a couple folks for peering. - One or more peering coordinators (one is more normal) to interface with their counterparts. These folks generally need both network engineering and contract administration tools. If they have one skill set, but not the other, it can lead to some difficulties, either way. - One or two network analysts, to create tools, and evaluate peering data, in order to decide who you want to peer with, who you don't, and if people are violating their peering agreements with you. A good background in network tool scripting, statistics, and network engineering is useful - A manager or technical leader well versed in contract administration, BGP architecture, and the ability to tie together sales dictates, martketing direction, and legal input into a cohesive peering policy. May also head the Peering Committee, if one exists. There can be a lot of overlap here between other groups like network analysis and network engineering. Sometimes it can be the same group. - Dan
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of Andy Dills Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 4:47 PM To: Dwight Ernest Cc: NANOG@merit.edu Subject: Re: Survey: Peering Staffing Levels
On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Dwight Ernest wrote:
I'm interested in getting some idea of the level of staffing provided by NSPs and ISPs in their peering departments. In fact, I've been asked by my management to provide as much info about such levels as possible, without a need to disclose the identity of any responding company.
Forgive me if I'm just used to small companies, but why would you really need more than one full time person (with an assistant possibly) in your peering department?
Sure, the job requires a very specific skill set (something along the lines of an engineer with an MBA), but the day-to-day interactions and changes regarding peering would seem to be minimal. In fact, my impression seems to be that you don't really need anybody on staff to not return emails to peering@, which is seemingly how most providers deal with it. :)
Note: I have absolutely no experience or data to base my assumptions on, so don't slap me too hard.
Andy
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Andy Dills 301-682-9972 Xecunet, LLC www.xecu.net xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access
participants (5)
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Andy Dills -
Daniel Golding -
David Diaz -
Deepak Jain -
Dwight Ernest