DrPeering -

Q: Why don’t they answer my emails? Are they ignoring me? I thought they had an open peering policy?

Emo Philips

iCrushed

A: During the European Peering Forum, Kurt Erik Lindqvist gave a talk about his recent experiences with public peering. (http://www.peering-forum.eu/assets/NewFolder/K-Lindqvist-rootserver-peering.pdf) He runs the I-Root Server which is deployed around the world. Kurtis pointed out that of the 250 emails he sent out, he was able to establish 85 new sessions. That many sessions setup over public peering in a short amount of time is impressive. What struck me was slide 16. Kurtis presented to the group that “Most: No reply at all”. Knowing that we were connected to the same exchanges where I-Root Servers are located, I went back and checked my email to see if we received the email. After checking, I noticed we indeed receive the email. I thought I would provide some feedback to what happened.

The first thing I noticed on the email, was that while it was sent to the correct people, it was sent as a BCC. Most people use email filters which might key on items like who the email was sent to. For me, anything sent to “peering@” gets sent to a specific folder where I can review and respond later. The best option is to check peeringdb.com and see where they want peering emails sent.

Even when you do everything right, you still may not get an answer. This is due to many factors. While you may be connected to one, two or three peering points, some providers are connected to 10, 20 or 30 + different peering points around the world. This means that there are a lot of different emails coming in all the time requesting public peering. While the goal is to respond to all emails, it does not always possible. You should remember, that while peering is a focus, there are many times where peering is just one of the many items they do. Even large companies which from the outside might seem to have unlimited resources, are still constrained by headcount budgets. While it would be nice to have enough people to be available to answer all emails, it is not always the case.

“But they state they have an open peering policy and they still ignore me.” Once again, please never take it personal. It might just come down to resource availability.

If you fall into this situation, what can you do?

The first thing to do is to look at peering with the route-server at the exchange. Router-servers are a great way to get a good number of routes with just one peering session. At some larger exchanges like LINX and AMS-IX, once you connect to the route-server, you are able to instantly get a high number of routes, sometimes exceeding 25,000! This can be the easiest way to pick up peering. What if the exchange you are connected to doesn’t have a route-server? Push the exchange, especially if you are paying them, to install one.

If the route-server doesn’t work, the next option is when you email them, provide all the needed information to bring up the connection. If you do this, it makes it much easier to bring up the session. Also, feel free to provide your phone number and ask them to call to ring you up. Or provide a way for them to contact you, IM, IRC, whatever works for you. It is much easier to bring up a connection when the other person is on the other end of the phone to confirm everything.

Lastly, if all else fails, be persistent. While you don’t want to overdo it, an email to the company every 2 – 4 weeks is not out of line.

Christian Nielsen

Christian Nielsen has worked on peering for 15 years. He started a regional peering exchange back in 1995 in Salt Lake City and has worked on peering for major content providers and networks.