Dear Dr. Peering -

I stumbled across an article “Transit Pricing: A Hidden Internet Menace” and didn’t quite follow it.

Help me digest this article.

Sergey Redevic

( http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=561&doc_id=182563&f_src=internetevolution_sitedefault&piddl_msgpage=2#msgs )

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Don’t digest that article; it doesn’t smell quite right.

Instead, for a high level overview, take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sSPAW2_9Ng , a very well done film from the Euro-IX that covers high level Internet notions along with a description of Peering.

Then take a look at some of the community-based interconnection research white papers like “Internet Service Providers and Peering” :

http://www.drpeering.net/a/Internet_Service_Providers_and_Peering_Definitions.html

and

“The Business Case for Peering” :

http://www.drpeering.net/a/Peering_vs_Transit___The_Business_Case_for_Peering.html

These provide a better description of what is going on with money exchange and peering between ISPs.

We can then talk about the wholesale vs retail transit and the various peering arrangements made between parties that optimize traffic delivery.  The article seems to infer that transit fees are somehow hidden fees like baggage handling fees the airlines charge, or security fees charged when you book a flight, or shipping/handling fees when you buy a ticket to a concert. This is really not the case.

Dr Peering

DrPeering@DrPeering.net