What constitutes Tier 1 ISP?
Jun. 3rd, 2004 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Is there a technical or legal definition of what makes an ISP "Tier 1"?
Someone is trying to claim to me that Paetec is a Tier 1 provider. I disagree, but I don't have a way to express it.
Someone is trying to claim to me that Paetec is a Tier 1 provider. I disagree, but I don't have a way to express it.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 09:35 pm (UTC)blocks
Date: 2004-06-02 09:38 pm (UTC)- If they can route blocks bigger than a class C
- How many hops are they from a backbone router
- Are they directly connected to a peering network
- Are they listed on sites like looking glass, or internet weather
Re: blocks
Date: 2004-06-02 11:58 pm (UTC)Re: blocks
Date: 2004-06-03 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 09:51 pm (UTC)http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/isp/2004/0301isp2.html
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Tier%201%20carrier
http://www.cctec.com/maillists/nanog/historical/0106/msg00401.html
no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 09:52 pm (UTC)http://www.t1price.net/tier-1-tier-2-providers.html
no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 10:30 pm (UTC)There's a very small number of Tier-1 ISPs. I suppose some metrics would include "Your packets almost certainly transit one to get anywhere", "Have a global high speed backbone, which runs at currently fast speeds [OC-192+]" (often owned, sometimes rented) - further discussion suggests that the amount of traffic carried by the network, the amount of transit traffic, and the number of peers [different providers], and number of peering points... as well as the capacity and actual peak bandwidth rate.
Ergh. If you look at: http://www.paetec.com/2_1/2_1_5__2.html [it's a silly animated thing, at that], Paetec definitely doesn't qualify. Not only are they US only, but they have next to nothing in terms of redundant routes, pops, or much of anything.
If you look at Level 3 [http://www.level3.com/577.html], or Global Crossing [http://www.globalcrossing.com/xml/network/net_map.xml], you'll notice that the maps maps are much, much richer.
Here are the top 10 networks in the world in order of size:
Company AS Peers
MCI 701 2440
Sprint 1239 1792
ATT 7018 1666
Qwest 209 868
Level3 3356 851
C&W 3561 680
GBLX 3549 630
Verio 2914 568
Abovenet6461 523
Genuity 1 329
Consider Paetec: http://www.fixedorbit.com/AS/15/AS15270.htm seems to be their main AS, with http://www.fixedorbit.com/AS/13/AS13678.htm as a subsiduary.
... and then look at MCI/UUNET: http://www.fixedorbit.com/AS/0/AS701.htm
So, er, no.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-03 04:13 am (UTC)If they're trying to sell you service, you probably don't want a Tier-1 provider. It becomes risky if that provider suffers a catastrophic failure.
Find a Tier-2 provider that connects to multiple Tier-1 providers. That way you get automatic network diversity.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-03 04:15 am (UTC)If you are old-school, your Tier 1s are UUNet, Sprint, Savvis (they bought Cable & Wireless), Genuity (BBN) XO (the new owners of DIGEX)and Covad (PSI).
These days, I look at www.caida.org - their most recent skitter map has the best view of the peering relationships.
Gary
no subject
Date: 2004-06-03 05:13 am (UTC)nope.