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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical The Great Exchange
It's evident, from reading through all of the responses to my questions on exchange of Internet traffic, that there are a lot of problems in this space, but not a lot of agreement on how to address them. Here are some summary observations based on group-wide communication, and notes sent to me directly. 1) More needs to be done to leverage locality of traffic Some great examples were given wherein simple cross-state connections were accomplished via an exchange point some one thousand miles away, a clearly sub-optimal arrangement. Fixing this problem was a point of some contention. Some said to forget about national exchange points, and just make private peering arrangements. Others noted that local exchange points are springing up in the areas that need them. Often these exchange points are the product of local ISPs working cooperatively, sometimes with the assistance of a corporate sponsor. Still others noted some commercial enterprises that are building an infrastructure and business model around the need for decent peering arrangements. To add complexity to this issue, differences arose over implementation details of a national peering system that preserved locality of traffic. Some advocated a hierarchical model, tiered if you will, that frankly sounded a lot like 5-level PSTN switching model. Others advocated a flatter model, although how that model relieves traffic at the core, and leverages locality remains to be seen. 2) Who dropped the packet? You can't fit 20 gallons of water in a ten gallon hat, at least not all at once. Oversubscription generated some heated comments from various factions. It is clear that one person's oversubscription is another person's unethical business practice. So, just how do we handle the delicate topic of oversubscription? Where is it okay to oversubscribe? Where can it absolutely not be tolerated? Oversubscription is fundamental to the design of many network switches, and is an essential aspect of many network technologies, and business plans. It's here. It's reality. How does one use it responsibly? A lot of finger pointing was done in the area of highly asymmetric and grossly underprovisioned connections to the Internet. What policies might mitigate such problems? Thoughts? 3) Internet SLAs and customer verification There was a modest amount of chest beating around verifiable levels of service. Nobody came right out and proposed Internet SLAs, but some did suggest that it would be nice to give the customer the tools for verifying the level of performance delivered by their access provider. This is an interesting angle, and we've seen evidence in the industry of some providers giving the customer limited ability to access this kind of information. NDAs seems to be at the heart of this problem. What tools do the ISPs need to provide this kind of information to the customer? Do the ISPs even want to provide this information? Is it pointless to provide this information since so much of the customer's total performance picture is dependent on factors that can't be controlled by the ISP? dp David R. Pickett Northchurch Communications Inc 5 Corporate Drive Andover, MA 01810 978-691-4649
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