[116353] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: XO - a Tier 1 or not?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John van Oppen)
Sat Aug 1 02:44:05 2009
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:36:30 -0700
From: "John van Oppen" <john@vanoppen.com>
To: "Justin M. Streiner" <streiner@cluebyfour.org>,
<nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
XO has been offering a product lately that is all routes except level3
and sprint which leads me to believe that they pay both of those
peers...
John van Oppen
Spectrum Networks LLC
Direct: 206.973.8302
Main: 206.973.8300
Website: http://spectrumnetworks.us
-----Original Message-----
From: Justin M. Streiner [mailto:streiner@cluebyfour.org]=20
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 8:31 AM
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: XO - a Tier 1 or not?
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009, Charles Mills wrote:
> Trying to sort through the marketecture and salesman speak and get a
> definitive answer.
>
> I figure the NANOGers would be able to give me some input.
>
> Is XO Communications a Tier 1 ISP?
Do the best of my knowledge, no. The definition of 'Tier 1' is
something=20
of a moving target based on who you ask, but the most commonly stated=20
criteria I've seen over the years are:
1. The provider does not buy IP transit from anyone - all traffic is
moved
on settlement-free public or private interconnects. That's not to
say
that the provider doesn't buy non-IP services (IRUs, lambdas,
easements,
etc) from other providers on occasion.
2. The provider lives in the default-free zone, which is pretty much a
re-statement of point 1.
I'll leave discussions about geographical coverage out of it for now.
That said, I don't think XO meets the criteria above. I'm not 100%=20
certain, but I don't think they're totally settlement-free. Other=20
providers like Cogent would fall into this bucket as well.
However, I also wouldn't get too hung up on tiers. Many very reliable,=20
competent, and responsive providers providers but transit to handle at=20
least some portion of their traffic. It also depends on what sort of=20
service you need. For example, if you need a big MPLS pipe to another=20
country, there are a limited number of providers who can do that, so
they=20
would tend to be the big guys. However, if you just need general IP=20
transit, your options open up quite a bit.
jms
