Peering Policies

A "Peering Policy" is "[t]he decision criteria that a provider applies in deciding with whom they will peer. " [NRIC Sec. 1.2.2] In the words of Bill Norton, a "Peering Policy" is "an articulation of peering inclination." [Norton, A Guide to Peering Contracts] [Norton Open Peering Policy] Originally, it was an articulation by a backbone network (the networks in the 1990s that peered) of whom it would perceive to be a "peer" or equal. It is like an amusement park sign that says, "you must be this tall to ride." Generally, to be a "peer," a network had to satisfy the settlement free peering proxy and be roughly equal in size and exchange roughly balanced traffic. A peering policy delineated how that would be measured.[Golding][BEREC p. 21 Dec. 6, 2012][NRIC FG 4]

A peering policy is not a peering contract; peering contracts are far more elaborate. It is not a legal "offer;" networks reserve the right to negotiate and to enter into a peering arrangement or not. [NRIC Sec. 1.2.2] [Norton, Peering Policies]

In the 1990s, as the nascent commercial Internet matured, Tier 1 backbones looked at smaller networks, concluded that they were not "peers," and migrated smaller networks to transit customer arrangements. [1997 Depeering] Smaller networks that found themselves with large transit bills complained. [Digital Handshake 2000] [First 706 Report, para. 105 (at the time, commenters unanimously opposed FCC intervention into peering and interconnection disputes with one exception; Bell Atlantic, now Verizon, recommended possible action by the FCC to lower barriers of entry to new entrants).] If they were not large enough to qualify for peering, then they wanted to know how large they had to be. They wanted to know what benchmarks they had to meet to avoid transit fees.

In 2001, the FCC's Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC, predecessor of CSRIC), led by Jim Crowe of Level 3, recommended that networks post peering policies on their websites. [NRIC Sec. 4.1] [NRIC Internet Peering Statement ("NRIC V encourages other Internet providers, and especially the large "backbone" Internet providers that comprise the core of the modern Internet, to consider, consistent with their business practices, publication of their criteria for peering.") Available on the Web Archive.] [GAO ("We were also told that peering policies should be made public.")] [FCC NRIC Encourages Publication of Peering Criteria to Promote Transparency (Oct. 30, 2001).] In the 2005 mergers (Verizon/WCOM, AT&T/SBC) and the 2007 merger (AT&T/Bell South), the parties agreed to post peering policies as a merger condition. [SBC / AT&T ¶ 133] [Verizon / MCI ¶ 134] [AT&T / Bell South, Appendix F]

Peering policies consist of two different types of clauses.[Compare Norton Survey (dividing the clauses into three groups: (1) operations-related Internet peering policy clauses; (2) Technical / Routing / Interconnection clauses; and (3) General Clauses).] First, provisions that determine whether a potential partner is a "peer" (roughly equal size with roughly balanced traffic), and, second, operational conditions regarding what is necessary to successfully interconnect. These provisions fall out as follows: 

Peer Criteria (roughly equal size / traffic)	Operational Conditions
Geographic reach Redundant network Presence at specified IXPs Minimum number of points of interconnection Minimum traffic capacity / utilization Balanced traffic ratio No customers as peers	24/7 NOC No Abuse Consistent Routing Announcements Filter routes Hot or Cold Potato Routing Resolving congestion / augmentation Use of IRR, PeeringDB

[Norton, Study of 28 Peering Policies] [Golding] [BEREC p. 21 2012] [NRIC Sec. 4.3 (examples include geographic coverage, proximity to exchange points, minimum capacity, symmetry of traffic exchange, minimum traffic loads, reliable network support, and reasonable address aggregation)] [Verizon (“The key common feature, however, is that these voluntary arrangements involve a mutual exchange of value of one form or another.”)] [Aemen Lodhi, Natalie Larson, Amogh Dhamdhere, Constantine Dovrolis, kc claffy, Using PeeringDB to Understand the Peering Ecosystem, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 44(2), 20-27, 21 (2014), ("Finally, we explore what historical snapshots of the PeeringDB database can tell us about the evolution of the Internet peering ecosystem.")]

In 2004, PeeringDB came on the scene. PeeringDB is a database created "by and for peering coordinators" that provides 

• a link to peering policy,
• peering inclination,
• whether interconnection at multiple locations is required,
• whether there is a balanced ratio requirement,
• whether a contract is required,
• peering contact information, and
• the peering facilities where the network is available for interconnection.

According to PeeringDB, "The purpose of this project is to facilitate the exchange of information related to peering. Specifically, what networks are peering, where they are peering, and if they are likely to peer with you." [Martin Levy, PeeringDB and why everyone should use it, presentation at African Peering and Interconnection Forum 2011, slide 7] In 2016, PeeringDB 2.0 was launched and PeeringDB was established as a non-profit organization. By the end of 2016, it listed 8194 peering networks, 2302 interconnection facilities, and 566 IXPs.  [Arnold Nipper, PeeringDB, presentation at CEE Peering Days 2017] [Terry Rodery, PeeringDB, presentation at NANOG 40 (2007)] [Aemen Lodhi, Natalie Larson, Amogh Dhamdhere, Constantine Dovrolis, kc claffy, Using PeeringDB to Understand the Peering Ecosystem, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 44(2), 20-27 (2014)]