Peering Group Of Eight Plans New Company
August 17, 1998
Inter@ctive Week via NewsEdge Corporation : A group
of eight Internet access providers plans soon to form a
private network exchange company to win connection
rights with larger backbone players.
At a recent West Coast founders meeting, Electric
Lightwave Inc., Epoch Networks Inc., E.spire
Communications Inc., Exodus Communications Inc.,
Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc., Savvis
Communications Corp., Williams Communications Group
and Winstar GoodNet agreed to pool $20 million to start
a corporation dedicated to connecting the members at
nine peering points around the U.S.
"There is a real crisis we need to solve in the backbone,"
said Mike Gaddis, chief technical officer of Savvis
(www.savvis.net).
The crux of the problem is high packet loss from
poor-quality interconnections between networks at the
public exchange points. Also, smaller networks are
unable to win free-traffic exchange, or peering, with large
players such as MCI Communications Corp., Sprint
Corp. and UUnet Technologies Inc. because they don't
pump enough traffic to qualify as equals.
The group of eight has agreed to peer privately among
themselves -- with some very small networks paying for
transit of data -- in order to guarantee clean handoffs.
The goal is zero packet loss and, if attained, would open
the door for service-level guarantees over multiple
networks. At present, access providers can guarantee
only the bits moving over their own pipes.
"It will mean better service quality to the end user," said
E.spire Vice President of Internet Product Management
Anurag Lal. "We're definitely going to stay [in the
group]."
The details of the new company, including its name,
have not been finalized. What has been agreed upon is
that the corporation will be responsible for hiring the
staff and managing the nine peering points
independently.
Shared lines will run over Asynchronous Transfer Mode
protocol. Dedicated peering connections will be
protocol-independent.
"The company will not compete with its members. It will
only sell exchange services," said Gaddis, who added no
member will be allowed to own more than 20 percent of
the organization.
The group's strategy is to entice UUnet (www.uu.net)
into the company because it has critical mass for peering
and better connections than the rest of the Net. UUnet
Chief Executive Officer John Sidgmore is aware of the
effort and is even giving some advice. "He's given us
some great ideas. Sidgmore is very interested in an
equitable and fair solution to the backbone peering
problem, " Gaddis said.
Peering Players
E.spire Communications Inc.
Electric Lightwave Inc.
Epoch Networks Inc.
Exodus Communications Inc.
Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc.
Savvis Communications Corp.
Williams Communications Group
WinStar GoodNet
<<Inter@ctive Week -- 08-14-98>>
[Copyright 1998, Ziff Wire]
|
