Transit Tactic 7 - Secret Sauce Transit

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

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) uses a variety of metrics for route selection, but it doesn’t account for the cost or performance of sending traffic along a particular path. Several specialty ISPs over the years have created a “secret sauce” of routing adjustments that account for these variables (see Figure 3-7).

smart routing

Figure 3-7. Tactic 7 - Route to minimize cost and improve performance.

This tactic can provide the cost-performance routing optimization very quickly, and it solves a real-world problem. However, implementation requires a high degree of expertise. The service solutions in this space, while attractive, require an educated and network-savvy customer prospect to recognize their value. As a result, the sales cycle for these services is long; this solution has not been highly successful in the marketplace.