Sprint, Cogent Resume Peering, Keep Arguing

As we predicted Friday, the peering dispute between Sprint and Cogent didn’t last long. Sprint said tonight that it has ” initiated a temporary reconnection” to Cogent’s network while the two companies seek to work out their differences. In its statement, Sprint made it clear that the reconnection was “temporary only, as the core issues in this dispute have not changed.”

Not surprisingly, Sprint blames Cogent for the breakdown between the two companies and says Cogent’s press release Friday (which blamed Sprint for the dispute) contains ”a number of distortions.” Here’s Sprint’s version of events: In mid-2007 Sprint and Cogent began a trial peering agreement to determine if the two companies could exchange traffic “settlement-free.” Peering is often free as long as the amount of traffic exchanged is not out of balance.

“Cogent did not meet the minimum traffic exchange criteria agreed to by both parties,” Sprint says “As a result, settlement-free peering was not established and Cogent was notified in writing of these results.”

Major Impacts from Cogent-Sprint Peering Flap

Who’s affected by the peering dispute between Cogent and Sprint? Lots of businesses, universities and government agencies, according to Renesys, which tracks Internet routing. In a business dispute between the two companies, Sprint has severed the network connections between them. That means any organizations that use only Cogent or only Sprint for their Internet access will be unable to see any sites on the other network. The dispute also leaves customers of WV Fiber unable to see Cogent’s network (more on this in a moment).

“Over 200 downstream autonomous system customers of each organization cannot reach the networks in the other,” writes Renesys’ Todd Underwood. “This is ugly and will remain so.” Todd’s post provides a thorough explanation of how the Cogent and Sprint networks are affected by the dispute. Here’s Renesys’ data on who’s affected:

• Folks that are “single-homed” with Sprint and cannot access Cogent’s network include Expedia Inc., Pfizer, Rutgers University, the Federal Aviation Administration and Sungard Higher Education, which provides technology management to colleges and universities.
• Organizations single-homed with Cogent include online video firm Joost, whose primary servers in the Joost Production Benelux Network in Amsterdam  use Cogent. Also affected are Loopt and NTT America.

Peering Dispute Between Cogent, Sprint

Many customers of Sprint-Nextel and Cogent Communications are likely to be inconvenienced by a peering dispute between the two companies. Almost all major  peering disputes these days seem to involve Cogent (CCOI), which has had earlier high-profile network spats with Telia,  Limelight Networks, Level 3, France Telecom and AOL. This time, Cogent was quick to point the finger at Sprint, issuing a press release shortly after the de-peering occurred.

“On October 30 at 4:30 pm Sprint-Nextel severed its Internet connection to Cogent thereby partitioning the Internet,” Cogent states. “It is no longer possible for many Sprint customers and Cogent customers to directly communicate across the Internet. Sprint did so in violation of a contractual obligation to exchange Internet traffic with Cogent on a settlement free peering basis. Sprint and Cogent are engaged in litigation over this matter.”

It’s the “settlement free” bit that is at the heart of the dispute. Peering allows providers to exchange traffic with one another at no cost (or low cost) by establishing direct connections between their networks, instead of routing traffic across the public Internet. Peering is often free as long as the amount of traffic exchanged is not out of balance, providing substantial cost savings for bandwidth for high-traffic sites and networks.

The Planet Expands Peering with Equinix

The Planet is beefing up its network by adding new nodes in Equinix colocation facilities in San Jose, Calif., and Ashburn, Va., The Planet, one of the largest hosting companies, said the access to additional networks through peering connections at the Equinix data centers will “significantly enhance network performance and latency.”

Network performance is important for large U.S. providers, serving as a major selling point for international customers who seek to host in American data centers because of their superior connectivity. About 42 percent of The Planet’s 22,000 customers are international.

Exchange Growth for Switch & Data, CRG West

Two leading providers of data center space, Switch and Data and CRG West, report strengthening activity in their Internet exchange businesses, which are seeing growth in participants and traffic.

Switch and Data (SDXC) said Monday that traffic on its PAIX Internet exchanges grew at about twice the rate of overall Internet traffic in the past year. This growthhas been driven by international networks peering with leading U.S. Internet content sites in the company’s Palo Alto and New York exchanges. PAIX traffic has grown by 112% in the past year versus a 65% global Internet traffic growth rate, according to Switch and Data.

Peak average traffic on the New York PAIX exchange has grown by 295 percent in 2008, boosted by European networks coming to New York peering traffic with U.S. content companies. The PAIX Palo Alto site, which was the world’s first commercial Internet exchange and has long been a leading site for Asian networks to peer traffic, has experienced 67% traffic growth. International networks are making the decision to peer in the United States to reduce transit time between countries and accelerate the performance of U.S. and other global websites in their home markets.

Telehouse to Expand NYC Peering Access

Colocation and peering specialist Telehouse has announced plans to expand access to NYIIX, the company’s carrier-neutral exchange point at the 25 Broadway carrier hotel in Manhattan. Telehouse said it plans to extend the exchange point to its headquarters at the Teleport in Staten Island and additional carrier hotels in New York City and northern New Jersey.

The expansion will allow customers at the Teleport, 32 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan and 165 Halsey Street in Newark, New Jersey to peer with other customers physically connected to NYIIX, which has a presence at New York’s other major carrier hotels at 60 Hudson Street and 111 Eighth Avenue in addition to the main site at 25 Broadway.

Cogent, Telia Resolve Peering Dispute

Cogent (CCOI) and Telia have resolved their peering dispute, and are once again accepting one another’s traffic. Renesys, which track Internet routing, reports that connections between the two providers were restored about just before 6 pm UTC (1 pm Eastern time).

The dispute caused Internet users in nearly 4,000 network prefixes at either Telia or Cogent to be unable to access web sites on the other network. It also caused problems for gamers whose ISPs rely solely on Cogent for connectivity, who were unable to access World of Warcraft. Cogent blamed Telia for the dispute, saying the European ISP had not lived up to agreements to increase capacity at some peering centers.

Peering Dispute Disrupts World of Warcraft

The Cogent-Telia peering dispute is causing major grief for gamers whose ISPs rely solely on Cogent for connectivity, who now find themselves unable to access World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular online game. It turns out that Blizzard Entertainment, which operates Warcraft, uses Telia for its Internet backbone services. Blizzard has advised Warcraft players of the business dispute between Cogent and Telia, which is also being discussed on Warcraft community news sites. It’s not clear whether this is affecting only Cogent networks in Europe, or the U.S. as well.

In de-peering Telia, Cogent is wagering that pressure from Telia’s users will bring the European broadband giant back to the table to work out their differences. But the Warcraft issue can’t be happy news for Cogent’s ISP customers, who are no doubt fielding complaints from angry gamers.

For more on network provider disputes and online gaming, check out RampRate’s column from 2006 titled “Every Time You Vote Against Net Neutrality, Your ISP Kills A Night Elf.”

Cogent Blames Telia for Peering Spat

Cogent CEO Dave Schaffer is blaming Telia for the peering dispute, which has left thousands of customers of the two companies unable to access sites on the other network. Schaffer spoke to Om Malik and says Telia is in breach of their peering agreement, and appears unconcerned that Cogent is once again taking heat in a peering dispute:

“The problem is simple, no one likes our low-price pricing policy except our customers, and most of the companies have been reluctant peers with us,” says Schaffer … The bone of contention (with Telia) is quite arcane. Cogent says that Telia was obligated to install certain peer connections with Cogent at specific locations, but hasn’t done so because it wants to degrade the experience for Cogent customers.

Schaffer says Telia resents Cogent’s expansion into its core markets. While geography is at issue in the dispute, equipment might be in the mix, too.

Cogent-Telia Peering Dispute Widely Felt

The ongoing peering dispute between Cogent and Telia has left many networks in the U.S. and Europe unable to connect with one another. Renesys, which tracks Internet routing, has some additional details on the impact of the dispute, which it describes as an “Internet partition.” Renesys says many networks are unable to simply route around the impasse, perhaps because one party (probably Cogent) is taking steps to block alternate traffic paths. Their analysis finds that 2,383 Telia network prefixes can’t reach Cogent at all, while 1,573 Cogent prefixes are completely cut off from Telia. The impact is most widely felt in Europe, but more than 1,900 U.S. network segments are affected as well. Some additional detail:

What is surprising is that networks in the US are actually cut off from each another, since a largely US provider is playing hardball with a largely Swedish one. … the list of impacted networks is too long to be included here, but they include a wide range of commercial, educational and government clients. On the Telia side, the victims include the Swedish Defense Data Agency, the Finnish State Computer Center, and broadband customers in St. Petersburg. With regard to Cogent, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Delaware, Kansas State University and Reuters America were all collateral damage.

Renesys notes that Flag and SingTel recently discontinued peering, but are allowing customers to find one another via alternate routes. “For the Internet to be whole again, Cogent and Telia need to kiss and make up,” Earl Zmijewski writes. “No one can force either one to carry traffic destined for the other. But my guess is that Telia is hearing more grief from Scandinavian customers not being able to reach US content than Cogent is hearing from US customers cut off from Northern Europe.” Check out the Renesys blog for a table detailing the country-by-country impact.