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Level 3 to Cogent: Pay to Peer
[October 06, 2005]

Level 3 to Cogent: Pay to Peer


By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist
 
Sigh.  Can’t we all just get along?
 
Two heavy hitting Internet backbone companies are taking their best shots at each other over a dispute regarding their peering arrangement. 
 
Briefly, Internet service providers enter into peering arrangements to create direct links to route each other's traffic instead of paying a third-party network service provider for transport.
 
Peering agreements, however, are only practical if the traffic that a network receives is close to the amount that it sends out.  When packet homeostasis isn’t achieved, oftentimes the company that does the heavy lifting will seek compensation for the extra effort.


 
Count Level 3 Communications as one such company.  Indeed, Level 3 cut off its peering arrangement with Cogent Communications on Wednesday, claiming that it handles a disproportionate amount of traffic between the two networks.

 
Accordingly, Level 3 wants to be compensated either monetarily or in the form of a transit settlement for what it believes is a lopsided arrangement. 
 
Cogent, for its part, denied that Level 3’s claim that it has the larger network, and responded with the following on its Web site:
 
“Level 3 has partitioned its part of the Internet from Cogent's part of the Internet by denying Level 3's customers access to Cogent's customers and denying Cogent's customers access to Level 3 customers.”
 
In the end, subscribers to both services are caught in the middle of this “My Network is Bigger than Your Network” standoff by being cut off from some sites.
 
Cogent is no stranger to peering disputes, having feuded with AOL in 2003 over AOL’s demand to be paid to continue the companies’ peering arrangement.   
 
VoIP Peering Summit

 

What advantages and business implications do carrier-level peering points offer over dedicated fiber? How secure are peering connections? For the answers to those questions and more, mark your calendar to attend the VoIP Peering Summit at this fall’s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, which runs October 24-27, at the Los Angeles Convention Center .

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Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:
 
 
 

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