Delivering IP Service Level Agreements is slowly becoming a technological reality. Aside from the basics of uptime and service commitment, combining protocols such as Diff-Serv and MPLS is providing the fundamentals for bandwidth guarantees. This presentation will look at how QoS service can be made end-to-end, whilst taking a reality check on what is truly available today!

One does not have to be much of a seer to make the prediction that service providers will be implementing QoS over the next couple of years. The ability to implement and manage QoS has a significant value for service providers, allowing them to introduce and effectively reap profit from new and advanced services that require QoS. Service providers may know the quantity of customers that are using their network, but do not know the types of applications being used. Therefore, they are unable to effectively manage QoS over the network for each individual customer, or bill effectively for resources used. New advances in IP Billing mediation such as the creation of an Internet Business Infrastructure, make profits as well as delivery of QoS possible.

The Japan Internet Exchange (JPIX) has been providing IX service since November 1997 as a commercial IX point in Tokyo. The number of customers and the traffic have been growing steadily, and the current status shows 36 connections with 650Mbps at its peak.

Japan's 24-hour Internet traffic pattern is very unique: the traffic peak exists at midnight and the bottom is at eight in the morning. This reflects the time period in which NTT's discount telephone rate plan is in effect.

Regarding peering, agreements are made between customers. Subscription to JPIX does not assure any peering agreement to be made with other customers. Though JPIX does not have any responsibilities for the agreement, it facilitates peering by means of multi-lateral peering arrangements.

As the first provision of the IX facilities is almost completely filled with the existing customer requirements, JPIX is going to introduce another switch in January 2000 to accomodate more customers. The initial switch has FDDI ports and the new switch will be equipped with Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet ports. In addition, JPIX is planning to introduce another IX in a different location in Tokyo.

We foresee that many more major US ISPs will be connected to JPIX in the coming year in parallel with the launch of new, Japan-US cable networks in mid-2000. Interconnected JPIX switches in multiple locations will meet more diverse requirements, especially from ISPs that request more carrier-neutral environments.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) peering has emerged as one of the most important and effective ways for ISPs to improve the efficiency of operation. Peering is defined as an interconnection business arrangement whereby each ISP directly exchanges traffic to and from each others' customers. ISPs seek peering relationships primarily for two reasons. First, peering decreases the cost and reliance on purchased Internet transit. As the single greatest operating expense, ISPs seek to minimize these telecommunications costs. Second, peering lowers inter-AS traffic latency. By avoiding a transit provider hop in between ISPs traffic between peering ISPs has lower latency.

So how is peering done?

This presentation details the ISP peering decision making process based on current practices in the U.S.

Interviews with Internet Service Providers have highlighted three distinct decision phases of the peering process : Identification (Traffic Engineering Data Collection and Analysis), Contact & Qualification (Initial Peering Negotiation), and Implementation Discussion (Peering Methodology). The first phases identifies the who and the why, while the last phase focuses on the how. Details in each phase highlight techniques for successful entry into the U.S. peering markets.

This research presentation is based upon interviews with the top tier ISPs and dozens of tier 2 ISPs. The findings were presented and substantially validated at the 17th North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) meeting BOF.

Mark Andrews

1. What is iDNS
2. The issues revolving iDNS(IETF, ICANN, policy)
3. Problems faces with iDNS adoption