nanog mailing list archives

Re: Peering and Network Cost


From: Justin Wilson - MTIN <lists () mtin net>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 11:53:49 -0400

Peering and peering on an exchange are two different things.  Peering at an exchange has several benefits other than 
the simple cost of transit.  If you are in a large data center which charges fees for cross connects a single cross 
connect to an exchange can save you money.

Peering can also be a sales tool.  If you buy from a VOIP provider and are peered with them your latency and such will 
go down.  You also have more control over the QOS over that peer.  This can be spun into marketing.  

Not to toot our own horn but we put together a list of benefits for our IX customers:
http://www.midwest-ix.com/blog/?p=15


Also, a good article at:
http://blog.webserver.com.my/index.php/the-benefits-of-hosting-at-internet-exchange-point/


Justin

Justin Wilson j2sw () mtin net
http://www.mtin.net  Managed Services – xISP Solutions – Data Centers
http://www.thebrotherswisp.com Podcast about xISP topics
http://www.midwest-ix.com Peering – Transit – Internet Exchange 

On Apr 16, 2015, at 11:10 AM, Edward Dore <edward.dore () freethought-internet co uk> wrote:

On 16 Apr 2015, at 08:00, Tore Anderson <tore () fud no> wrote:

* Mark Tinka <mark.tinka () seacom mu>

On 16/Apr/15 07:25, Tore Anderson wrote:
We're in a similar situation here; transit prices has come down so
much in recent years (while IX fees are indeed stagnant) that I am
certain that if I were to cut all peering and buy everything from a
regional tier-2 instead, I'd be lowering my total MRC somewhat,
without really reducing connectivity quality to my (former) peers.

I wouldn't say exchange point prices are stagnant, per se. They may
remain the same, but what goes up is the port bandwidth. It's not
directly linear, but you get my point.

Again, the burden is on the peering members to extract the most out of
their peering links by having as much peering as possible.

You appear to be assuming that an IP transit port is more expensive
then an IXP port with the same speed. That doesn't seem to always be
the case anymore, at least not in all parts of the world, and I expect
this trend to continue - transit prices seems to go down almost on a
monthly basis, while the price lists of the two closest IXPs to where
I'm sitting are dated 2011 and 2013, respectively.

Even if the transit port itself remains slightly more expensive than
the IXP port like in the example Baldur showed, the no-peering
alternative might still be cheaper overall because even if you're
peering most of your traffic you'll still need to pay a nonzero amount
for a (smaller or less utilised) transit port anyway.

Tore

Pricing at LINX here in the UK has definitely dropped over the past few years.

Back in 2011, the membership fee was £1500/year and it's now £1200/year.

1G ports were £391/month on the first London LAN and £335/month on the second London LAN. They're now free on both 
LANs for the first port and then £270/month and £180/month respectively for additional ports.
You can also get a free 1G port on each of the Manchester UK, Cardiff UK, Edinburgh UK and North Virginia/Washington 
DC USA LANs as part of the same membership fee (none of these additional LANs existed in 2011).

10G ports were £1463/month on the first London LAN and £1250/month on the second London LAN. They're now £1030/month 
and £785/month respectively.

So that's what, a 20% reduction in membership fees and a 30% or higher (depending on the service) reduction in port 
fees in 4 years?

I don't have any quantifiable data on what has happened to IP transit costs over the same period, but for a point 
comparison I'd say that off the top of my head you can get a 1G CDR on a 10G port from a tier-1 provider in London 
for approximately the same cost as a 10G port at LINX these days, maybe slightly cheaper.

Edward Dore 
Freethought Internet 


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