NTAC Peering Working Group

[Michael H Lambert <>]

On 24 May 2013, at 14:07, Jeff Bartig wrote:

> From reading through this thread, there is a strong desire for
> connectors having a choice in how this traffic gets delivered to
> them, some wanting it via TR/CPS and others via R&E paths.  This
> seems reasonable.

I think we're all in agreement here.

> Where I see an issue is that we are partitioning our capacity to
> these commercial peers.  TR/CPS had 20G of capacity to Amazon in
> Ashburn.  Now R&E has a separate 20G of capacity to Amazon in
> Ashburn.  If we needed more capacity to Amazon, would it have made
> more sense to get 40G of capacity rather than building a separate
> path?

Maybe not at 40 Gb/s in Ashburn, but there is a crossover point somewhere.

> One option would be to have all Net+ peers connect to the existing
> TR/CPS routers or simply expand capacity if it is already an existing
> peer.  This would probably require provisioning a separate Net+ VRF
> on the TR/CPS routers to implement cleanly.  AL3S could peer with
> this VRF to get Net+ routes.  These Net+ routes could be allowed
> into the main TR/CPS routing table for those connectors that want
> to prefer a TR/CPS path.

Would it make any sense to have a third pipe for Net+ services?  Or, at 
least, would it make any less sense than having connectors bias Net+ traffic 
into either the R&E or TR-CPS pipe at their discretion?  It has a drawback of 
having to worry about bandwidth on a third connection, but it does achieve 
functional separation.

> I haven't thought about this long, so consider it a rough idea to
> discuss.  I've been thinking primarily about the technical aspects
> of this.  Are there business issues that may restrict our options?
> For example, I've heard that Net+ Amazon cloud services may have
> more attractive data transfer pricing than Amazon's traditional
> pricing due to these new interconnects.

I think one could argue that Net+ is distinct in policy from both R&E and 
TR-CPS.  In R&E we have Internet2 participants as well as peers who have 
participants in like-minded networks; in Net+ we have specially blessed 
services; in TR-CPS we have peers of convenience.

Michael