IP Transit

IP transit is a formal agreement; usually in the form of a registered contract, by which wholesale Internet bandwidth is sold or resold by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers. ISPs may enter into peering arrangements with other ISPs such that neither charges the other for carriage of each other’s customer’s traffic. These peering arrangements tend to exist mainly between ISPs of comparatively similar size and reach.

There are many commonly held misconceptions and misunderstandings about what Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do or don’t do and what their responsibilities are. Not only this; but considerable amounts of misinformation are perpetually propagated throughout the Internet. Unfortunately with the ever increasing popularity of “conspiracy theories” that abound in the general community at large it comes as no surprise that many people hold the belief; mistaken or otherwise, that for whatever reasons some ISPs are actually behind the propagation and dissemination of this misinformation.

Furthermore; because most ISPs are not generally openly forthcoming with verifiable evidence to prove otherwise, they also do themselves no favors from the general public’s perspective by adopting and adhering to a very secretive approach with regards to such procedural elements as their; operational processes and methods, consumer service(s) metrics, security, incident handling and reporting and their billing mechanisms. In all fairness to the ISPs these tactics are to a certain degree understandable from a security perspective.

Metrics

The biggest point of contention is the classification metrics used by ISPs in the determination and classification of “sensitive” information from a competitive open market view-point or “trade secrets” if you will. The practice of classifying run-of-the-mill consumer billing issues into the “limited access” security category thereby enabling an ISP to avoid disclosing what could be very embarrassing information is something that the general public tends to view rather dimly.

This is a practice; which in the public’s eye, becomes somewhat magnified whenever high tariffs are applied to highly profitable to services. Very rarely does the public look past the dollars to the other high capital risk investments that may need to be implemented in order for the high profit service to be delivered in the first place. Open accountability may help ISPs in gaining a better appreciation from the general public but they prefer to be secretive which only promotes distrust on the part of the general public.

Examples of some of the types of embarrassing information that ISPs routinely treat in this manner include statistical data and detail pertaining to breaches of personally identifiable information security or lack thereof.

It is said that some ISPs treat their customers rather like mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed on bullsh*t). In this way they; the ISP, may very well be able to avoid disclosing “sensitive” information such as their billing structure to any external entities or even “hostile” internal entities. The basic philosophy behind this approach is to assume that all entities are to be treated as being suspicious until proven otherwise or “guilty until proven innocent”.

Wholesale IP Transit Agreements and Pricing

Wholesale IP transit agreements are complex formal agreements; usually in the form of a registered contract, by which wholesale Internet bandwidth is sold or resold by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers. Wholesale bandwidth pricing is typically offered as a fixed or sliding scale on a per megabit per second per month basis (M-bit/s/Month) and requires the purchaser to commit to a minimum volume of bandwidth. Pricing for the bandwidth can be reduced significantly by purchasing larger volumes or extending the contract term.

Modern IP transit agreements typically provide service level guarantees to almost all of the major Internet Exchange Points within a continental geography such as North America, Europe or Australia. However, these IP Transit Service Level Agreements (SLAs) still remain only best-effort delivery agreements since they do not guarantee service from the Internet Exchange Point to the final destination.

Retail (Consumer) Grade IP Transit Agreements

As consumers, we too enter into SLAs with our particular ISP to purchase IP transit. Today we find that the most common consumer grade service level agreements/contracts; such as ADSL and ADSL 2+ broadband SLAs, are generally expressed in terms of an asymmetric capped bandwidth rate usually with some upper volume limit on an X Gigabytes per month basis.

The asymmetric aspect of a consumer grade Internet service level agreement is generally manifested as a quoted download connection rate with a much lesser upload connection rate. Also keep in mind that actual data transfer rates tend to be somewhat less than the quoted connection rate in either direction.

Another aspect of a retail IP transit arrangement that the majority of consumers are unaware of is the standard progressive data transfer rate drop off. In general we find that consumer grade asymmetrically capped Internet services will connect at or very near the stipulated connection rate. Unfortunately; in the majority of instances, this data transfer rate will not be sustained throughout the entire duration of the current conversation.

Shortly after commencement of the user requested data download commencing the actual data transfer rate will progressively diminish. It must be noted that in general this data transfer rate drop off will at some point eventually cease to decline and from that point forth will generally be maintained throughout the rest of the current conversation until such time as the conversation is finally completed to the mutual satisfaction of both end parties to the conversation.

You have probably also noticed that regardless of the direction of a transaction the larger the file being transferred the more disproportionately longer it takes to be completed. For example; downloading a 50MB file takes considerably longer than 50 times the time taken to download a 1MB file. You will also find that if you are on some form of consumer grade ADSL service that files are downloaded considerably faster than they are uploaded.

It is interesting to note that in the majority of instances you will find that your eventual data transfer plateau rate is the same as the data transfer rate cited by your ISP as being the contracted connection speed of the service level offered by your ISP which is directly below yours.

Considering that the average Internet consumer’s usage habits are such that they will spend a far greater proportion of their “online” time downloading then uploading files this disparity between the two rates of transfer is usually perceived by the consumer as being satisfactory. We just accept that that is the way it is.

Ever Increasing Bandwidth Requirements

One of the reasons that both business and consumer alike are being forced to regularly upgrade their Internet connectivity options and possibly to renegotiate their SLAs is that the average file size that is routinely being transferred via the Internet is continually spirally upward. This in turn places additional burdens open existing link arrangements. Downloading television programs for later viewing is a major factor here as are the expansion and deployment of VoIP services.

With ever increasing numbers of the general population embracing various VoIP solutions for their telephony requirements we are seeing the inevitable dramatic increase in demand for additional bandwidth. We all want to be able to use our phone and PC simultaneously. The only true long term solution that can satisfy this need is for the consumer to increase their bandwidth capacity and so renegotiate a revised or new IP Transit service agreement with an ISP of their choosing.