About wbn

Who is William B. Norton?

William B. Norton photo

Executive Director, Consultant, DrPeering International

WIlliam B. Norton is a consultant, author of The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet, and highly sought after public speaker and international recognized expert on Internet Peering. He is currently engaged as the Executive Director and Consultant for DrPeering.net, a leading Internet Peering portal and consultancy. With over twenty years of experience, Mr. Norton focuses his attention on sharing his knowledge with the broader community in the form of presentations, Internet white papers, and private on-site consultations.

From 1998-2008, Mr. Norton’s title was Co-Founder and Chief Technical Liaison for Equinix, a leading Internet Peering Exchange and colocation center provider. From startup to IPO and until 2008 when the market cap for Equinix was $3.6B, Mr. Norton spent 90% of his time working closely with the Peering Coordinator Community. As an established thought leader, his focus was on building a critical mass of carriers, ISPs and Content Providers and documenting the core values that Internet Peering provided, including the Peering Break Even Point and Estimating the Value of an Internet Exchange.

To this end, he created the white paper process, identifying interesting and important Internet Peering operations topics, and documenting what he learned from the peering community. He published and presented his research white papers in over 100 international operations and research forums. These activities helped establish the relationships necessary to attract the set of Tier 1 ISPs, Tier 2 ISPs, Cable Companies, and Content Providers necessary for a healthy Internet Exchange Point ecosystem.

Mr. Norton developed the first business plan for the North American Network Operator's Group (NANOG), the Operations forum for the North American Internet. He was chair of NANOG from May 1995 to June 1998 and was elected to the first NANOG Steering Committee post-NANOG revolution.

William B. Norton received his Computer Science degree from State University of New York Potsdam in 1986 and his MBA from the Michigan Business School in 1998.

Connect on-line:  http://DrPeering.net – RSS: http://ask.DrPeering.net – e-mail: wbn@TheCoreOfTheInter.net

Industry Leadership and Public Speaking
  1. "Network Discovery Algorithms for the NSFNET", Connexions – The Interoperability Report, Vol 8, No. 4 April 1994
  2. "Network Management Architecture for the Routing Arbiter" InterOp 1994
  3. "Discovery Algorithms for the NSFNET", INET'94 Invited Paper, presented in Prague, Czech Republic
  4. Referee: Fourth IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management – May 1-5, 1995
  5. NANOG 4, May 22-23, 1995 chaired the meeting, “Distributed Rovers Architecture”, NANOG Feb 1995, Ann Arbor, http://www.academ.com/nanog/may1995/ , developed first NANOG Business Plan
  6. TCP/IP Expo Aug 1995 San Jose
  7. COMDEX April 1995 Atlanta
  8. InterOp May 1995 Las Vegas
  9. EduCom – demo
  10. National Network Conference, May 1992, Washington DC, Demonstration of Internet Rover to U.S. Representative Richard Boucher at Inet'92.
  11. InterOp 1992, Demo Distributed Rovers at IBM booth and for VIPs
  12. InterOp 1993 Atlanta – Chaired BOF
  13. NANOG 5, Sept 11-12, 1995 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, chaired the meeting, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9509/.index.html
  14. NANOG 6, Feb 15-16, 1996, San Diego Supercomputing Center, chaired the meeting, http://www.academ.com/nanog/feb1996/
  15. NANOG 7, May 30-31, Washington, DC, chaired the meeting, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9605/.index.html
  16. "Project NetSCARF", Connexions – The Interoperability Report, July 1996, Vol. 10, No. 7
  17. NANOG 8 October 24-25, 1996, Ann Arbor, MI, chaired the meeting, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9610/update.html
  18. NANOG 9– Feb 9-11, 1997, San Francisco, CA, chaired the meeting, gave “RA Update” talk with Bill Manning, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9702/update.html
  19. IETF April 7-11, 1997 Plenary Talk, RA Update, Memphis TN
  20. ISMA 2 – May 1-4, 1997, participated in discussion forum, San Diego, CA
  21. RIPE – May 18-24, 1997 Ireland
  22. NANOG 10 – June 5-6, 1997, Chaired the Meeting, Tampa FL, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9706/agenda.html
  23. PacBell NAP Seminar – July 14-18, 1997
  24. IETF – Munich, Germany August 9-17, 1997
  25. NANOG 11, October 27-28, 1997, Chaired the meeting, Phoenix, AZ, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9710/update.html
  26. IETF December 6-13, 1997 Washington, DC
  27. NANOG 12, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Feb 8-10, 1998 http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9710/agen1097.html
  28. APRICOT – Feb 11-22, 1998 – Manila, Philippines, Chaired several panels
  29. IETF 41 – Los Angeles March 28-April 3, 1998
  30. NANOG 13, chaired the meeting, Dearborn. Michigan June 7-9, 1998, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9806/update.html
  31. IETF 42, Chicago IL, August 24-28, 1998
  32. ISPCon, “Peering and Settlement”, San Jose, CA September 16-20, 1998
  33. NANOG 14 – Atlanta (First one that I did not chair) Nov 8-10, 1998, gave talk on panel on Commercial Grade Internet Facilities, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9811/agen1198.html
  34. Internet Regatta – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Nov 28-Dec 6th , 1998
  35. IETF 43 – December 7-11, 1998, Orlando, FL
  36. RIPE – Amsterdam – Jan 23-29, 1999
  37. NANOG 15, Jan 30-Feb 4, Denver CO 3
  38. APRICOT “Chair QOS vs. Bandwidth, UUNet vs. Qwest panel”, March 1-5, 1999 Singapore
  39. IETF – Minneapolis March 13-19, 1999
  40. ISPCon “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs” April 26-29, 1999, Baltimore, MD
  41. NANOG 16, Eugene Oregon, October 23-25, 1999, presented “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs”, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9905/agen9905.html
  42. IETF – July 9-18, 1999 Oslo, Norway
  43. NANOG – August 26-28, 1999 Detroit Michigan
  44. Internet Engineering Steering Forum (IESF) – “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs”, Seattle, WA
  45. RIPE – “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs” at EIX Work Group, September 17-25, 1999, Amsterdam
  46. NANOG 17, chaired Peering BOF, chaired Panel on Current and Next Generation Content Distribution Techniques, –and “Peering BOF” Montreal http://www.nanog.org/mtg-9910/agen9910.html
  47. ISPCon, “Interconnection Strategies and Peering” October 25-30, San Jose, CA
  48. IETF – November 8-12, 1999, Washington DC
  49. ISPF – November 15-19, 1999, New Orleans, Interconnection Strategies for ISPs
  50. NANOG 18, Feb 5-8, San Jose, Exchange Point Update panel speaker, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0002/index.html
  51. IWS2000 Feb 15-18, 2000 “Interconnection Strategies and Peering”, Tskuba, Japan
  52. RIPE 35, Feb 19-25, 2000 Amsterdam
  53. APRICOT “Internet Service Providers and Peering” Feb 27-March 4, 2000, Seoul, Korea
  54. IIR, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game” March 12-17, 2000 London
  55. ITU – “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, April 7-15, 2000, Rio De Janeiro
  56. Network + InterOp, “IP Address Management and Peering Relationships: How to Drain the Swamp” May 9-12, 2000 Las Vegas NV
  57. RIPE 36 – May 15-20, 2000 Budapest, Hungary
  58. ISPCon – May 22-26, 2000 “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs”, Orlando
  59. NANOG 19 – June 11-13, 2000 Albuquerque, NM
  60. Inet2000/Developing Nations Workshop – July 8-21, 2000, “Chair of Internet Routing Track”, “Interconnection Strategies and Peering”, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, ”Peering Simulation Game”, Yokohama, Japan
  61. IETF 48 – July 29-August 4th, 2000, Pittsburgh, PA
  62. Tier 1 Operations Meeting – Interconnection Strategies for ISPs, August 6-7, 2000, Washington DC
  63. RIPE 32, September 10-15, 2000, Amsterdam - Interconnection Strategies for ISPs
  64. Networld + InterOp September 23-29, 2000 Atlanta Georgia
  65. ARIN – October 1-4, 2000 Reston, Virginia
  66. NANOG 20, October 21-24, 2000 Washington DC
  67. FCC – “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, October 25, 2000
  68. Next Generation Networks, “Scaling the Core of the Internet”, October 31-November 3, 2000 Washington DC, 5000 people in audience
  69. ISPCon, “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs” , “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “A Business Case for Peering”, Nov 8-10, 2000 San Jose, CA
  70. IETF – December 9-15, 2000, San Diego, CA
  71. RIPE 38, “The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook”, EIX Jan 20-27, 2001 Amsterdam
  72. Global Business Solutions, Jan 29-31, 2001 Miami, FL
  73. ISPCon, Feb 3-8, 2001 Toronto, Canada, "Internet Service Providers and Peering"
  74. Gigabit Peering Forum II, “A Business Case for Peering”, Feb 13, 2001 San Jose, CA, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  75. NANOG 21, “Internet Data Center Needs”, Feb 18-20, 2001, Atlanta, GA
  76. CLEC Expo, “Interconnection Strategies for ISPs” and “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, Feb 21-23, 2001 NYC
  77. APRICOT, “Peering Simulation Game”, Feb 24- March 3, 2001 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  78. INTAP, “Internet Data Centers”, March 4-7, 2001, Tokyo, Japan
  79. ISPCon, Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “A Business Case for Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, April 3-6, 2001, Baltimore, MD
  80. Cisco UNDP Networking Program, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, April 12, 2001 Santa Clara
  81. RIPE 39, April 27-May 5, 2001, Bologna, Italy
  82. IIR – Interconnect Billing, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “A Business Case for Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, May 8-11, 2001
  83. LINX Member Meeting, “Peering Contact Info”, May 14, 2001, Paris, France
  84. NANOG 22, May 19-22, 2001, Scottsdale, AZ
  85. Gigabit Peering Forum, “Chair”, July 16-17, 2001, Dallas, TX, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  86. Internet Data Center Conference, July 23-25, 2001, San Francisco
  87. Web Hosting Expo, “All About Bandwidth”, August 18-23, 2001 Washington DC, 2001
  88. IIR – Interconnect Accounting and Billing, “Peering Simulation Game”, September 28-Oct 2, 2001, Antwerp, Belgium
  89. RIPE 40, October 3-6, 2001 Prague, Czech Republic
  90. ISP Forum – “Peering Workshop – Interconnection Strategies for ISPs”, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “A Business Case for Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, Nice, France, October 12-18, 2001
  91. NANOG 23, October 21-23, 2001, Oakland, CA
  92. Cisco Workshop, “Peering Simulation Game”, Nov 8, 2001, Santa Clara, CA
  93. Gigabit Peering Forum, “Chair, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “Peering Simulation Game”, San Jose, December 3, 2001, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  94. IIR – Interconnect Accounting, “The Difference Between Internet and Telephony Accounting”, December 7-12, Amsterdam
  95. LINX Member Meeting, “Peering Simulation Game”, December 14, 2001, London
  96. NANOG 24, Feb 10-12, 2002, Miami, FL
  97. APRICOT, “Chair”, March 2-10, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand
  98. IIR – Interconnect Accounting, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, April 22-26, 2002
  99. RIPE 42, April 28-May 4, 2002, Amsterdam
  100. Gigabit Peering Forum V, “Chair”, “The Art of Peering”, April 7-9, 2002, Chicago, IL https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  101. ISPCon, “Internet Service Providers and Peering”, “A Business Case for Peering”, May 20-23, 2002, Baltimore
  102. NANOG 25, “Peering BOF”, June 9-12, 2002, Toronto, Canada
  103. XchangePoint Seminar, “The Art of Peering”, June 19-23, 2002, London
  104. CableLabs Forum, “Do ATM-based Internet Exchange Points Make Sense Anymore?”, August 26-27, 2002
  105. Content Peering Forum, “A Business Case for Content Provider Peering”, September 17-18, 2002, Redwood Shores, CA
  106. NANOG 27, “Peering BOF VI”, Feb 9-11, 2003, Phoenix, AZ
  107. Gigabit Peering Forum, “Chair”, “Do ATM-based Internet Exchange Points make sense anymore?” Feb 13, 2003, Los Angeles, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  108. APRICOT, “Peering Simulation Game”, Feb 22-March 2, 2003, Taipei, Taiwan
  109. RIPE, – “The Art of Peering”, March 12-March 16, 2003, Barcelona, Spain
  110. NANOG 28, April 1-3, 2003, Salt Lake City, Utah
  111. Equinix Sydney Peering Forum, June 16-20, 2003, Sydney, Australia
  112. Agilent Invited Speaker, August 5, 2003
  113. Gigabit Peering Forum VII, Ashburn, VA Sept 8-10, 2003, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  114. NANOG 29, October 20-22, 2003 Chicago, IL
  115. Keynote Speech, EuroIX, Nov 3-4, 2003 Lisbon, Portugal
  116. Equinix Singapore Peering Forum, meet Gov't and Press, Nov 6-7, 2003, Singapore
  117. Purdue Class Presentation, Internet Service Providers and Peering, Art of Peering, Professor Tenanbaum, Jan 25-27, 2004
  118. NANOG 30, Miami FL, Feb 8-10, 2004 chaired Peering BOF VII, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0402/norton.html
  119. NANOG 31, San Francisco, CA, May 23-25, 2005, presented “Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystemhttp://www.nanog.org/mtg-0405/norton.html
  120. APRICOT 2004, Feb 18-23, 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, chair Peering Track, run Peering Simulation Game, http://www.apricot.net/apricot2004/conference-peering.htm , presented “The Evolution of the US Peering Ecosystem
  121. Tokyo Peering Forum, presented “The Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem”, March 10, 2004, Tokyo, Japan, http://www.equinix.com/press/press/2004/02_24_04.htm
  122. Gigabit Peering Forum VIII, San Jose CA March 16, 2004, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm presented “Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem”
  123. Sydney Peering Forum, Chaired event, July 28, 2004
  124. Gigabit Peering Forum IX, chair, New York City, NY, Sept 14, 2004, presented “The Business Case for Peering v2”, https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/agendas.htm#sj2004
  125. NANOG 32, Reston, VA, Oct 17-19, 2004, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0410/agenda.html, small private walk through of white papers
  126. RIPE 49, Manchester, Sept 20-21, 2004, Peering Simulation Game, EOF, http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-49/eof.html
  127. NANOG 33, Las Vegas, chaired Peering BOF, Jan 30-Feb 1, 2005, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0501/index.html chaired peering BOF VIII http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0501/norton.html
  128. NZNOG 2005, Waikato University, New Zealand, Feb 2-8, 2005, “Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem” and “Peering Simulation Game
  129. APRICOT 2005, Kyoto, Japan, Feb 16-25, 2005, chaired Peering Track, http://www.apricot.net/apricot2005/bof.html#b8
  130. NOTA Peering Forum, Miami, FL, March 3-7, 2007, data collection and informal white paper walk through here.
  131. Elected to 1st NANOG Steering Committee, 2 year term, 2005-2007
  132. Australia Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) 2005, Massive Disruption in Ecosystems, http://www.atug.com.au/atug2005program.cfm, March 9-10, 2005, Sydney Australia,
  133. WebMonsters, Las Vegas, Private content forum with largest content companies in the world, presented peering tutorial and 2010 exercise.
  134. RIPE 50, Stockholm, Sweden, May 1-7, 2005, presented Peering Simulation Game, Director's Cut, http://ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-50/index.html
  135. Sydney Peering Forum July 26, 2005, Sydney Australia, chaired the meeting, presented the Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem white paper.
  136. NAMex Peering Meeting, Rome, Italy, Oct 1-8, 2005, Art of Peering - the Peering Playbook, invited paid speaker at IX Member meeting.
  137. ISPCon Santa Clara, panel with Bill Woodcock, Gene Lew on peering strategies, Oct 17-20, 2005
  138. NANOG 35, Los Angeles, Oct 23-25, 2005, chaired Peering BOF X, http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0510/agenda.html
  139. Gigabit Peering Forum, October 26, 2005, chaired peering forum
  140. NANOG 36, Feb 12-15, 2006, Peering BOF XI http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0602/norton.html
  141. APRICOT 2006, Feb 26-Mar 3, 2006, Perth, Australia, Chaired Peering Track
  142. ATUG 2006, Mar 6-7, 2006 Sydney, Australia, “Why Telstra won't Peer
  143. NANOG 37, June 4-7, 2006, San Jose, CA, Peering BOF XII http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0606/norton.html and Newcomer Orientation NANOG History http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0606/newcomers.html
  144. Tokyo Peering Forum, June 20, 2006, Keynote: “Internet Video: Massive Disruption of the US Peering Ecosystem
  145. Peering Council, Sept 27, 2006, Half Moon Bay, CA “Internet Video: Massive Disruption of the US Peering Ecosystem
  146. NANOG 38, Oct 8-11, 2006 St. Louis, MO Peering BOF XIII http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0610/norton.html
  147. Sydney Peering Forum, Nov. 8, 2006, Chair and present “Internet Video: Massive Disruption of the US Peering Ecosystem
  148. NANOG 39, Feb 4-7, 2007, Toronto, Chair Peering BOF, present “History of NANOGhttp://www.nanog.org/mtg-0702/norton.html
  149. APRICOT 2007, Bali Indonesia, Feb 23-Mar 2, 2007, Chaired Peering Track, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem”, presented “Peering Tutorial”, http://www.apricot.net/apricot2007/program.php
  150. Stanford Networking Seminar, March 15, 2007, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  151. Stanford Clean Slate Seminar, March 21, 2007, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  152. Global Peering Forum, Belieze, March 24-30, 2007, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  153. RIPE 54, Estonia, European Operator's Forum Plenary, May 7-11 2007, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  154. NANOG 40, June 4-6, 2007, Bellevue, Washington, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem”, chaired Peering BOF XV, presented History of NANOG
  155. Content Networking Forum, BandCon Event, Los Angeles, Panel on Content Delivery, June 13, 2007
  156. Merit Members Meeting, Ann Arbor, MI, May 19, 2007, presented “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  157. Tokyo Peering Forum, July 25, 2007, gave keynote (see press release), abbreviated version of “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  158. Stanford Roundtable on Policy and Economics, September 21, 2007, Stanford Campus
  159. NANOG 41, Albuquerque, NM, chair Peering BOF XVI, Oct 14-17, 2007
  160. BandCon Content Networking Seminar, San Jose, Nov 7, 2007
  161. AUSNOG, Nov 15-16, 2007, “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem
  162. Lecturing at UC Berkeley Networking Class, Dec 4, 2007 UC Berkeley joint seminar on “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem”, Haas School of Business
  163. CoolTech Forum, DLA Piper, Jan 17, 2008, Video Internet
  164. APRICOT 2008 – Chair Peering Track, Peering Tutorial, Feb 22-28,2008 Taipei, Taiwan
  165. Battery Ventures – June 2008 – Video Internet presentation to partners
  166. UC Berkeley – Grad Study Telecommunications Class – Construction of the Modern Video Internet, October 7, 2008
  167. NANOG 45 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Jan 23-30, 2010, Peering 101 "liked the peering 101 - lots of fun", "Good Info"
  168. NANOG 47 Dearborn, MI, Oct 18-21, 2009, A Business Case for a Cooperatively Managed CDN ad hoc BOF
  169. NZNOG Jan 25-31, 2010, Emerging Video Internet Ecosystem
  170. Private South African Peering 2-day Workshop, Feb 2010, Peering Simulation Game, Internet Service Providers and Peering, Art of Peering - The Peering Playbook, Art of Peering - the IX Playbook, “Video Internet, the Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem” etc. See Two-Day Peering Workshop for a detailed agenda and presentation materials.
  171. Private Movie Studios InterStream Summit, Los Angeles, Movie Studio Board Room, May 13-15, 2010, A Business Case for a Cooperatively Managed CDN
  172. ITW - Chair InterStream Mediated Bandwidth Working Group Meeting, May 25-28, 2010, A Business Case for a Cooperatively Managed CDN
  173. CollabNet Think Cloud Computing Tank Panelist, "Cloud Computing Position Statement", July 20, 2010
  174. African Peering and Interconnection Forum: Unlocking Africa's Regional Interconnection, Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 19-22, 2010, Peering Simulation Game, Internet Service Providers and Peering, Art of Peering - The Peering Playbook, Art of Peering - the IX Playbook
  175. DEC-IX 15th Anniversary , Aug 31-Sept 1, 2010, Invited Speaker, "The Business Case for Peering", Frankfurt, Germany
  176. HighWinds/BandCon Streaming Media West Panel, Nov 2, 2010 invited panelist. Los Angeles, CA
  177. DigiWorld Summit 2010 Invited Speaker, November 13-19 ,Video Internet Ecosystem, Slides, Video, Montpellier, France
  178. Belgium Neutral Internet Exchange (BNIX) keynote address , March 17, 2011, Brussels, Belgium
  179. Cisco Telepresence Global Two-Day Peering Workshop, April 14-15, 2011, San Jose, CA
  180. ETICS Meeting, Empirical challenges to A Business Model for a Cooperatively Managed CDN, May 28-June 2, 2011, Versailles, France
  181. US Telecom, Leveraging the Access Network Power Position, June 23-25, 2011, Lake Tahoe, NV
  182. The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet book is released to Amazon.com in print and for the kindle, to the iBookStore for the iPad, to Barnes and Noble for the Nook. Book signings and promotional events at dozens of venues.
  183. African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF-2), The Peering Simulation Game, The Art of Peering: The Internet Peering Playbook,and book signing for The Internet Peering Playbook, August 4-11, 2011, Accra, Ghana
  184. CAIDA Workshop on Internet Economics, Access Power Peering, Dec. 1-2, 2011
  185. Published the article "The Emerging 21st Century Access Power Peering" in the refereed journal, Communications & Strategies: Network Neutrality: Act II, No. 84, 4th Quarter 2011.
  186. USTelecom Webinar on Internet Peering, Connecting to the Core of the Internet, Jan. 18, 2012
  187. APRICOT 2012, New Delhi, India, Internet Peering Tutorial, Feb 28, 2012
  188. US Telecomm Workshop, "Understanding the Core of the Internet: The 21st Century Internet Peering Ecosystem," May 10, 2012
  189. DeltaForce IT, Internet Peering Playbook Chalk Talk, July 16, 2013
  190. AFPIF 2013 and Release of the 2014 Edition of The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet, http://www.internetsociety.org/events/afpif-2013/afpif-2013-programme release w/ new chapters on Remote Peering and International Peering, September 1-5, 2013 Casablanca, Morrocco
  191. UKNOF26 - London, invited Remote Peering talk, September 13, 2013

Presentation Feedback for William B. Norton

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  • Bill Norton did great as always
Authored Industry White Papers

To help people select which white papers to read, we have marked them according to how much background knowledge the reader is assumed to have.

White Paper ratings by technical difficult
Easy Icon No advanced knowledge of Internet Peering is needed to understand this document.
Advanced Icon Some advanced knowledge of Internet Peering is assumed.
Expert Icon This white paper may be difficult to fully understand without background knowledge of the Internet Peering field.
   

Some Internet Exchange Point Operators have told DrPeering that they point their engineering and sales folks to these white papers and suggest that they start out with the Easy to readwhite papers, migrate to the Must know about peeringwhite papers, and finish with the Some background Requiredwhite papers when they have some working experience with peering. This seems to help so we kept the convention going. One can also peruse these documents by looking to the tutorials sequences on the home page.

EasyReadInternet Service Providers and Peering (v3.0)

ISP and Peering Graphic

This white paper focuses on the definitions and processes of peering. It identifies the 9 selection criteria ISPs told me that they use to determine which IX to build into as well. This one is in use in networking classes at Universities across the US! I would recommend this one and A Business Case for Peering for folks just getting into peering. More advanced and more technical folks would be interested in The Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook, as it deals with more strategic "Tricks of the Trade".

EasyReadA Business Case for Peering in 2010

Peering Break even point graph

The Business Case for Peering White Paper is intended for the CFO who just wants the economic argument for peering, specifically, "Why should I spend money on something that won't generate any revenue?" There is after all a cost of peering (transport to an IX, rack and port fees, and equipment costs) and the CFO just wants to be shown the break even point where peering makes sense. Rewritten for 2010 applying market pricing.

EasyReadInternet Transit Pricing (Historical and Projected)

This brief provides the data showing that Internet Transit has declined in price an average of 61% each year from 1998 to 2010. We share the data, the graph and the spreadsheet so others can make use of the data. This is one of the most requested pages on the site.

Internet Transit Pricing Data

Introductory Peering White Papers - Start Here

EasyReadEuropean vs U.S. Internet Exchange Point Models

US vs Euro IXes

How is peering different in the U.S. vs in Europe? There are some differences in how IXes were set up and continue to run as compared with the U.S. version. This article explores these differences.

tougherReadThe Great Public Peering vs Private Peering Debate

Public vs Private Peering

The Public vs. Private peering debate part is required because the Peering Coordinator Community points out that the next best alternative to 10G public peering is peeling off cross connects or circuits for private peering, so the paper compares these two options.

tougherReadA Study of 28 Internet Peering Policies

 

DrPeering reviewed 28 Internet Peering Policies to examine the language used in peering policies, to see if one could categorize common peering policy clauses. As it turns out, many of the peering policy clauses were very similar if not identical. We placed these clauses into categories, each with their own web page so the community can compare the wording of their favorite peering policy clauses.

This has proven invaluable for training and for those looking to design their own peering policy.

tougherReadThe Peering Policy Life cycle

Peerign Lifecycle image

This early draft documents a position first articulated by Vijay Gill that peering policies tend to go through a life cycle as companies grow and eventually get to Tier 1 ISP status.

 

tougherReadVideo Internet : The Next Wave of Massive Disruption to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem

Video Internet Ecosyctem

In previous research we documented three significant disruptions to the U.S. Peering Ecosystem as the Cable Companies, Large Scale Network Savvy Content Companies, and Tier 2 ISPs started peering openly. By peering content directly with eyeballs, they effectively bypassed the Tier 1 ISPs resulting in improved performance, greater control over the end- user experience, and overall lower operating costs.

This paper predicts a new wave of disruption that potentially dwarfs this previous redirection of Internet traffic. Short video clip web sites, full length motion pictures, and television shows are now available via streaming to on-line devices and via downloading to iPods. High quality movies from independent producers are being distributed via peer-to-peer methods. We observe these flash crowd effects and the larger movie file sizes as the crest of the first wave of significant incremental load on the Internet.

The majority of this paper details four models for Internet Video Distribution (Transit, Content Delivery Networks, Transit/Peering/DIY CDN, Peer-to-peer) across three load models. The cost models include network and server equipment along with pricing models for various distribution methods. Over one hundred walkthroughs of this paper have led to stepwise refinements of the models and insights into why one would prefer or not prefer one model over the other.

The summary of the paper is a comparison of these video distribution techniques in terms of $-per-video units from the Video Service Provider perspective. We highlight cascading obstacles preventing large scale delivery of video traffic using commodity transit in a single location. The CDN solution and the multi-site Transit with Peering solution bypass some of these obstacles, while the peer-to-peer solution, while controversial, yields (by far) the lowest cost solution from the video service provider perspective.

tougherReadThe Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystem (v1.1)

Evolution of the US Peering Ecosystem

This white paper documents the new U.S. Peering Ecosystem that emerged from the ashes of the telecom collapse in 2000-2002. Peering changed dramatically as the Cable companies, large network-savvy content players got into peering in a big way. This is best suited to broadband and large content providers who want to see if peering fits. They will see the leaders in the industry going down the peering path and saving significant money (>$1 million per annum).

tougherReadThe Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem (v1.0)

Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem

This is the latest white paper focusing on the things that Peering Coordinators said they wished they had known before building into Asia. It identifies 5 reasons to build into Asia, 4 International Interconnection Strategies 1 peering dynamic that may seem counter intuitive, along with 9 "lessons learned." The second half of the paper identifies specific characteristics of the Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia Peering Ecosystems.

This white paper is most appropriate for those who are exploring expanding into Asia. As the newest, this white paper is still in early draft stage and about to be circulated for broader comments so expect it to be updated several times over the next few months.

TougherReadThe Art of Peering: The Peering Playbook (v1.4)

Traffic Manipulation Tactic - the Art of Peering - the peering playbookTraffic Manipulation Tactic

This is the most controversial peering white paper as it identifies the peering "Tricks of the Trade", those tactics that Peering Coordinators have shared with me that have successfully been used to obtain peering where they otherwise would not have been able to. It is controversial because some of the tactics are ethically questionable - to be listed, the only requirement was that the tactics had to have been successfully used to obtain peering where they otherwise would not have been able to. This paper is best suited to advanced peering coordinators, those having difficulty obtaining peering (content-heavy ISPs and content players), and technical folks interested in seeing how routing is strategically applied to achieve strategic peering & business goals.

TougherReadThe Folly of Peering Ratios

Peering Ratios discussion

Does it make sense to use Peering Traffic Ratios to determine if a peering partner will work for you?

tougherReadInternet Data Center Build vs Buy Decision

Build vs Buy Internet data cetner

This paper explores the trade-offs between building a data center and outsourcing the data center to a third party. The scope of this research is limited to the common "core infrastructure", that is, the systems that all Internet data centers require regardless of business model. We will explicitly not be discussing web design, construction, hosting, monitoring, or management and operations services. These activities are required regardless of whether or not the Internet data center is outsourced or not. We are focusing this research solely on the decision rule: when does it make sense to build your own data center and when does it make sense to outsource it?

EasyReadThe Peering Simulation Game

peering gamepeerign game gameboard

The Peering Simulation Game is based upon the research ("Internet Service Providers and Peering" and "A Business Case for Peering") that documents ISP peering practices, motivations, and strategies, and was designed to demonstrate ISP peering negotiations through a live simulation. In this simulation, four audience members play the role of ISP Peering Coordinator, rolling the dice and growing their network by acquiring customer "squares" on a virtual game board. They receive money for each square they occupy but must pay transit fees to their upstream ISP to access the rest of the "Internet". By negotiating peering, the Peering Coordinators reduce their transit costs. The goal of the game is to maximize their bank account. Since the ISPs both cooperate in peering to reduce costs and compete to maximize their bank accounts, this game has proven to bring forward peering negotiations strikingly similar to peering negotiations in the real world.

 

EasyReadThe Emerging Video Internet Ecosystem (v0.9) EARLY DRAFT

Video Internet

In this brief we share some initial insights into the migration of video traffic from traditional channels into what can best be described as an emerging Video Internet Ecosystem video or presentation recorded at NZNOG 2010.

Two ecosystems have evolved to delivery video to consumers: the Hollywood system, based on over one hundred years of evolution, and the Video Internet System, based on only ten years of evolution. These ecosystems are mostly parallel but in some places interconnect, clash, converge and rapidly evolve. One thing in common to both is that innovations are fundamentally changing the viewer experience. We will compare these two systems at a high level, highlight how they work and highlight some potential trajectories..

EasyReadThe History of NANOG - 1987-2007

In this paper we brief the reader on the North American Network Operator's Group (NANOG), what led up to it and the early days of operating the forum. This is useful for those anticipating setting up a regional network operator's group (there have been many *NOG organizations since the launch of NANOG.

tougherReadA Business Case for a Cooperative CDN

Coop CDN

This controversial paper is a starting point for an entire business model ecosystem designed to distribute of latency and loss sensitive Internet objects. For a set of premium content producers, there is a willingness to pay a little more for a guaranteed high-quality end-user experience. For some Internet Service Providers, there is a willingness to expend resources if there is a corresponding increase in revenue. What is needed is an ecosystem that supports both of these goals.

An overlay network called a "Media Grid" is introduced in this paper. A revenue allocation model is introduced along with two scenarios; before caching, and when the object is served entirely out of last mile cache. These scenarios are discussed with the goal of aligning the interests of all of those participating in the cooperatively managed video delivery ecosystem.

Related to this work is the informal study "The Top 10 Reasons QoS hasn't taken off" shared at a private workshop as a power point presentation.

This work was funded in part by nuMetra and the InterStream Association in 2009.

For Internet Exchange Point Operators:

TougherReadThe Art of Peering : The IX Playbook (v1.0)

This is the follow on to the Art of Peering : The Peering Playbook, but intended for emerging Internet Exchange Point Operators. It highlights the tricks of the trade - "How does an IX get to critical mass?" We highlight a dozen approaches that have been used and discuss the pro's and con's of each

TougherReadModeling the Value of an Internet Exchange Point

In this white paper we model an Internet Exchange Point from the perspective of an IX customer to answer the question - what is the financial value of an Internet Exchange Point to its population?"

TougherReadColocation is not just Real Estate

picture

In this white paper answer the question - "Is Colocation just high priced real estate?". As it turns out there is a real art to building and maintaining the right mix of participants that participate in a complex ecosystem.

 

TougherReadJob Description: Chief Technical Liaison

Chief Technical Liaison

Most IXes have a person who acts as a Chief Technical Liaison but without the title - you should get to know these people who know everyone. You may recognize the person after you read what the person actually does.

tougherReadTop 9 Selection Criteria for an Internet Exchange Point

This brief documents the top selection criteria ISPs said they use to choose which Internet Exchange Point to build into.

Interconnection Strategies for ISPs

This legacy white paper was the first to address the trade-offs between using exchange points or point to point circuits. It presents a proof that if there are more than 5 parties seeking interconnection, a central place with fiber between them wins big.

Peering Personals

This describes the Peering Personals events, a little bit about the Peering Coordinator Community anf how to break into the Peering Community.

 

Bill Norton and Equinix History

wbn Biz Card

wbn Equinix picture

Jay Adelson, Al Avery, Bill Norton - Early Equinix Photos - 1998

In early 1998, Jay Adelson and Al Avery were interested in expanding the PAIX model internationally. DEC, the owner of the PAIX at the time, was not enthusiastic about the plan. So Jay and Al left the PAIX and contacted me in June about being on their Technical Advisory Board (TAB). I mentioned that I just graduated with my MBA from the Michigan Business School and that, since I was studying entrepreneurship for the last bunch of years, maybe I could help them launch this new venture. They agreed and I was brought in as Co-Founder and Director of Business Development, a title later upgraded to Co-Founder and Chief Technical Liaison which was somewhat more reflective of what I did on a daily basis.

Equinix startup

Early Equinix photo. Logo was just delivered to the front desk. Some names I remember include Greg McHugh, Dan Gisi, Keith Taylor, Kumar ___, Jay Adelson, Bill Norton, Lisa Luciana, Matt Wood, Art _____, Jeff Rizzo, Ted Hardie, Atam Lachandani (sp?), Al Avery, Dermott (sp?)

1st Revenue

Bill Norton playing ping pong in front of the first revenue Equinix received

I was successful in bringing in the first Equinix customer, Blue Mountain Arts - see the check in the background in the picture above. I brought in Yahoo!, at the time, Equinix's largest and most prominant customer, and helped bring in the Tier 1 ISPs, the Cable Companies, and some of the largest international ISPs in the world. It was during these first few years that 95% of the heavy lifting was done in my opinion. I credit the early sales team with much of the success here. Beyond that point, the value of the IX was there and it became a much easier sale.

Photo of friends while traveling

Martin Levy, Bill Norton, Avi Freedman, Brokaw Price

From the beginning I was travelling all the time - I was 90% externally focused. As Jay and Al were building out the team, hiring like crazy and build the IBXes, I was speaking at conferences, doing market research, trying to understand and document if and when Internet Exchange Points made sense from the customer point of view. I shared everything I learned back to the community in the form of Internet White Papers.

I believe much of my success was from the travel - the relationships established and maintained, the business cases I helped build for the community and the individual companies, the white papers made freely available, the leadership demonstrated chairing NANOG, running the early Equinix GPFs, the NANOG Peering BOFs and APRICOT Peering Tracks.

One thing I heard loud and clear from all of these customer contacts was that it wasn't about the data centers - people said "Bill, I expect you are going to keep the lights on and the building cool. What else do you have?"

Chicago Data Center Center Gutted

Touring the old paper facility that became the Chicago IBX

It was about the ecosystems, the revenue that would be made by participating in the Internet Exchanges, and the cost savings resulting by peering.

value Of IX

Image from one of many wbn white papers detailing the practice of Internet Peering.

In retrospect, I took quite a gamble. I sold my home in Michigan and everything I owned to come out to Silicon Valley, the home of the startup ! After eleven years at a not-for-profit watching all my NANOG friends getting rich, finally it was my turn to roll ! During my 10 years at Equinix (1998-2008) we went from the startup phase through the IPO, into and through a painful economic downturn and recovery. After my stock options finished vesting in April 2008 I left Equinix with a market cap of $3.6B. What a ride!

Equinix Host Award

Bill Norton accepting award at Web Hosting event.

From 2008 on I worked on DrPeering.net, an iPhone web App for LocalCook.com and also provided some part-time consulting for too many companies to mention. I find this work very rewarding so I continue to help startups launch, and now survive and thrive in these difficult times.

Internet Data Centers Toured

The subset of Internet Data Centers and Internet Exchange Environments I have toured:

  1. MAE-East, http://www.mae.net/
  2. MAE-West, http://www.mae.net/
  3. University of Michigan North Campus Computing Center, www.merit.edu
  4. NetRail hosting center, www.netrail.net
  5. AboveNet San Jose I and II, http://www.abovenet.net/
  6. JPIX and NSPIXP in Tokyo, http://www.jpix.ad.jp/
  7. AMS-IX at NIKHEF and SARA, http://www.ams-ix.net/
  8. London Internet Exchange (LINX) in Telocity, www.linx.org and www.telecity.co.uk
  9. Level3 in San Jose, www.level3.com
  10. Digital Island in San Jose, http://www.digitalisland.com/
  11. GNAC in Redwood City, http://www.gnac.com/
  12. Equinix Ashburn and San Jose, http://www.equinix.com
  13. Exodus in Sunnyvale, California, http://www.exodus.com/idcs/
  14. Two Frontier Global Center facilities in Sunnyvale, California, http://www.globalcenter.com/
  15. PacBell NAP, http://www.pacbell.com/Products_Services/Business/ProdInfo_1/1,1973,146-1-6,00.html
  16. Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX), http://www.paix.net/
  17. Ameritech Advanced Data Service (AADS) NAP, http://nap.aads.net/main.html
  18. NORAD – North American Aerospace Defense Command, a bunker inside a granite mountain from which continental aerospace activities are tracked. http://www.spacecom.af.mil/norad/index.htm
  19. Equinix Ashburn, VA Internet Business Exchange (IBX) http://www.equinix.com
  20. Equinix Dallas, TX Internet Business Exchange (IBX) http://www.equinix.com
  21. Equinix Chicago, IL Internet Business Exchange (IBX) http://www.equinix.com
  22. Equinix Newark, NJ Internet Business Exchange (IBX) http://www.equinix.com
  23. Equinix Los Angeles, CA Internet Business Exchange (Internet Business Exchange (IBX)) http://www.equinix.com
  24. Equinix San Jose, CA Internet Business Exchange (IBX) http://www.equinix.com
  25. NAP of the Americas (NOTA) in Miami, http://www.ccgrpnet.com/webpages/techcenter/PSWSTech.nsf (tour photo above)
  26. Switch & Data Facilities Miami, http://www.switchanddata.com
  27. Telecity London Docklands
  28. Telehouse East London Docklands
  29. Redbus London Docklands
  30. InterXion London
  31. InterXion, Amsterdam
  32. IXEurope, London
  33. PAIX Palo Alto
  34. Equinix Tokyo
  35. Equinix Hong Kong
  36. Equinix Sydney
  37. Equinix Singapore
  38. PIPE Networks, Sydney
  39. 1 Wilshire, Los Angeles California, meet me room and China Telecom
  40. 365 Main, Bay Area
  41. Equinix Santa Clara (former Sprint facility)
  42. CoreSite, Milpitas
  43. Hurricane Electric, Freemont
  44. Kenya Internet Exchange Point, KIXP Aug 14, 2010
  45. DE-CIX Frankfurt hosted at InterXion, Aug 30, 2010
  46. IBM Data Center, Montpellier France, November 17, 2010
  47. InterXion Data Center, Brussels, Belgium, March 16, 2011

Time Allocation as of Thursday, March 15, 2012
William B. Norton Activity Allocation Summary
Percentage of Time Activity
50% Client Engagements and Workshops
20% Administration
10% Professional Development
10% Pro Bono - talks at colleges and local events, travel costs covered remote speaking engagements with business class for international engagements (African Interconnection Conference for example), NANOG Finance Workgroup, etc.
10% Community Service - YMCA Board of Directors work, fundraising, for example
Speaker Introduction

William B. Norton - Sample Introduction text for speaking events

Our next speaker brings over 20 years of Internet Peering expertise to the forum.

Bill Norton worked on the NSFNET project which operated the core of the pre-commercial Internet.

He chaired the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG), the operations forum for the north american Internet.

And he was Co-Founder and Chief Technical Liaison for Equinix, a large scale commercial Internet Exchange Point operator. After 10 years at Equinix, Mr Norton retired and launched Dr Peering International, a peering consultancy. He is the author of The Internet Peering Plaubook, which remains the world's only book devoted to the practice of Internet Peering.

Please welcome Bill Norton.

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