[ixp] others at ixp - failure of ISPs?

[Mark Tinka]

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 03:39:29 pm Antonio Godinho wrote:

> In our IXP in Mozambique we have a policy that any ISP
> that joins the IXP must peer with everyone else and only
> ISPs are allowed to be at the IXP.

We've seen this work especially in new exchange points, 
particularly since most networks willing to peer at the 
exchange point have a fairly equal amount of traffic, and 
are eager to get it going.

Issues have been witnessed where incumbents (who normally 
move the most traffic around) are forced to peer with all, 
as well. We've seen cases where incumbents fill up their 
port capacity on the switch, are reluctant to upgrade their 
connectivity to said switch as it may mean putting in a new 
router, running new fibre in case the peering router is 
remote, purchasing new line cards for their end, e.t.c., and 
end up withdrawing some of their prefixes to ease on the 
congestion, and in fact, encourage peering members to opt 
for their "paid" service if they want better access. Of 
course, in such cases, government/regulator intervention may 
force them to clean up their act at the exchange point, but 
how sustainable that is is a good question, especially if 
government priorities shift, later on, to other socio-
economic issues.

As bandwidth begins to pick up the exchange point, and some 
ISP's start to become more competitive than others, it 
becomes interesting to maintain, in practice, that each 
participating member has to peer with the other, short of a 
government/regulator order.

But it may be many years before anything like this begins to 
manifest; or not.

Cheers,

Mark.
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