[governance] IGF-Is Peering a Net Neutrality Issue?

[John Levine]

>York's transit bandwidth supplier is Cogent which had severed a peering
>relationship with a bandwidth provider in Europe called Telia. ...

> Is this a net neutrality issue?

Not really, unless the new definition of net neutrality is "anything I
don't like."

Cogent has been providing second-rate Internet service at low cost for
many years.  For customers where cost is more important than absolute
reliability, Cogent is a perfectly reasonable choice.

Peering disputes have been a constant feature of the commercial
Internet since the creation of the CIX in 1991.  As a general rule,
networks of similar size peer with each other without charge, while
smaller networks pay for transit connections to larger ones.  Relative
and absolute network sizes are constantly changing, so there are
adjustments both to the technical connections and the financial
arrangements.  When the financial negotiations break down, one of the
parties will typically turn off the connection, many self-interested
press releases are sent out bewailing the awful consequences of the
other party's refusal to pay the asking price, and after a few hours
or days someone blinks, they make a deal, and the connection is turned
back on.  The recent spat between Cogent and Telia is an utterly
ordinary example of this.  Cogent probably has more peering spats than
other large networks since they're more cost sensitive, but they all
do from time to time.

If York professors' research is so urgent that the inability to reach
part of the net for a little while constitutes a crisis, the
university really should use a higher cost higher quality ISP.  Of
course, someone has to pay for the higher cost, so in fairness if
that's what you want, you should say where the money will come from.

R's,
John
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