Re: T3 or not to T3

[Stephen Stuart <stuart () pa dec com>]

> On the other hand, maybe you could be the customer that establishes the
> distributed web server scenario I discussed earlier. If you have read
> through http://www.ix.digital.com you will not that not only are they
> running an exchange point but they are also running a web farm of sorts at
> the same location. Chances are good that this web-farm-at-the-XP concept
> will become the rule rather than the exception. Note that in Digital's
> model it would be possible to connect to larger ISP's without requiring
> traffic to flow through the XP itself.

At Digital's Palo Alto IX (URL as Michael said above), we view the
exchange point as a place where peering relationships are implemented.
Web farmers who are not ISPs (I'm not trying to start a debate on
what-is-an-ISP) can only peer with ISPs at the GIGAswitch if the web
farmer is able to find an ISP that wishes to provide connectivity in
that manner. I would hope that they wouldn't.

My personal feeling is that the provision of service should be
implemented on a separate port of the ISP's router - this provides
both the ISP and the web farmer with a measurable point of demarcation
independent of the IX. If the web farmer paid for an Ethernet or
whatever interface, they'd get an Ethernet or whatever interface, and
the bandwidth available to the customer on that port would not vary
with other traffic as it would if the web farmer were competing with
the ISP's peers for an interface attached to the GIGAswitch. Should
the web farmer purchase connectivity from other ISPs, their purchases
can be implemented as cross-connects to ISP routers (assuming the
address space can be advertised, the topology of the web farmer's
network can handle it, etc., etc., etc.).

ISPs might also wish to implement certain peering relationships with
cross-connects rather than consume bandwidth on their interface to the
GIGAswitch. To us, cross-connects are cross-connects, whether they
connect ISPs to web farmers or ISPs to ISPs.

Stephen
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Stephen Stuart                          stuart () pa dec com
Network Systems Laboratory
Digital Equipment Corporation
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