Re: Peering Policies and Route Servers

[Nathan Stratton <nathan () netrail net>]

On Mon, 29 Apr 1996, Michael Dillon wrote:

> I think that you will find it much easier to get Sprint, MCI et al. to
> peer with you at multiple NAP's if you have a reputation and that
> reputation is a good one. The people at the large NSP's are rightly
> conservative at making new peering decisions because the network is now so
> big and so important to customers that they cannot risk significant
> network failure.

I don't think so show me a ISP that has setup peering with sprint this
year, and is only at one NAP.

> If you want to peer, you will have to prove that your actions will not
> endanger the network fabric especially the fabric of the NSP who you
> are negotiating peering with. This is not an unsolvable problem.

That is how it is will a lot of people still, but is not the case with
sprint and MCI.

> The first step is to develop technical competence in your staff. This is
> more than just reading manuals although it would help to have large
> portions of Cisco's manuals committed to memory. It also requires you to
> actually operate a complex network fabric of your own for a long enough
> period of time for the learned theory to become understood reality. Part
> of this effort should include familiarising yourself with much of the
> leading edge research found in RFC's and other documents published by
> various RFC authors and researchers. Some of this is at ra.net, merit.edu,
> nlanr.net and so on.
>
> In addition you have to develop a reputation of competence and this
> demands that you physically attend several NANOG meetings and perhaps some
> IETF's. There is nothing that can establish a reputation better than
> personal contact. Of course, once you become a face and not just an email
> address, even the "no" responses to a peering request are likely to lead
> to some more explanation of "why?" so that you can remedy the situation.
>
> The time required to go through these rites of passage will also allow you
> to get your national network infrastructure built out so it is not a loss.
> You *CAN* operate a national (or even international) network without
> peering agreements. You *CAN* grow into being an NSP. You may even
> discover that there are some benefits to multiple bilateral
> peering/exchange points as opposed to becoming yet another NSP at an
> octopus-like NAP.
>
> Of course, the above is only my HUMBLE opinion, your mileage may vary :-)

Well, I think that is how it should work, and that is what I look for
before I connect peers, but this is not what Sprint or MCI and more and
more providers are starting to do.

Nathan Stratton           CEO, NetRail, Inc.    Tracking the future today!
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