About This Book

Excerpts from The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet

This book is not about technology. There are many great books about the protocols, hardware, and algorithms. One can look at the protocols, the hardware, and the algorithms, but that doesn’t tell the story about how the Internet works at the core.

This book is about the core of the Internet, the relationships between the companies that operate the central infrastructure, the “interconnection machinery” that makes the Internet work. It describes the business relationships that simultaneously demonstrate symbiosis and grudging interdependence. This book models the Internet as a Global Internet Peering Ecosystem, and describes the players, their power position, and the corresponding motivations and, indeed, predictable behavior.

This book includes everything you need to know about the Global Internet Peering Ecosystem to make the critical decision: when and why does your company need to connect to the core of the Internet? Some parts of this book will be of interest to you immediately, and some parts will be of interest to you later on. All of it is essential for business people, executives, and technical staff focused on the Internet.

Together, we will take an outward-in view of the Internet.

Section I Connecting to the Edge of the Internet

Section II Connecting to the Core of the Internet

Section III The Global Internet Peering Ecosystem

Section IV The Tricks of the Trade: The Playbooks

We will start by looking at how most companies attach to the edge of the Internet, and learn about the industry terms. We then dive into the core of the Internet, where the largest ISPs and content companies in the world peer their networks. Then we take a 30,000-foot view on the Global Internet Peering Ecosystem, and recognize the commonalities across the globe. With this holistic view of the Global Internet Peering Ecosystem, we will finish by examining the “Tricks of the Trade”—the playbooks collected from some of the smartest peering coordinators and Internet Exchange Point Operators in the world. These playbooks document how ISPs obtain peering where they otherwise would not have been able to. The IXP playbook documents how the smartest IXPs build, grow, maintain, and attack or defend their critical mass of peering participants.

This book takes the reader beyond “The Internet is a network of networks” and documents the internal workings of Internet interconnection and the strategic nature of these interconnections. This information is essential for any Internet services company building out at scale.