[179574] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Peering and Network Cost
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jason Lixfeld)
Sun Apr 19 23:33:36 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Jason Lixfeld <jason@lixfeld.ca>
In-Reply-To: <20150419.110909.1471902622528808090.wwaites@tardis.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2015 23:33:30 -0400
To: William Waites <wwaites@tardis.ed.ac.uk>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
> On Apr 19, 2015, at 6:09 AM, William Waites <wwaites@tardis.ed.ac.uk> =
wrote:
>=20
> On Sun, 19 Apr 2015 11:23:53 +0200, Baldur Norddahl =
<baldur.norddahl@gmail.com> said:
>=20
>> So why is IX peering so expensive?
>=20
>> But the only service is running an old layer 2 switch.
>=20
>> The 40 dix particants should donate 1000 USD once and get a new
>> layer 2 switch. Why does that not happen?
>=20
> This is something like how TORIX was operated at the beginning. The
> switch was donated by Cisco and rack space by a member with a cage at
> a convenient spot at 151 Front -- I think this was jlixfeld at
> look.ca. Fees were a $1/port/year peppercorn.
>=20
> It has been a long time since I was in any way involved in that, but
> today for a 1Gbps port TORIX charges $1200/year which is more but =
still
> not as much as you say for other IXPs. It would be interesting to hear
> from someone who was involved in TORIX at the time how this transition
> from $1 to $1200 went and the reasoning behind it. My guess would be
> moving to its own space and having to pay rent was a major part of it,
> and possibly acquiring staff?
To be clear, we asked for $1/port/year, but we never really bothered to =
pay attention to who actually paid :)
Instead of addressing your questions directly, how about a brief and =
much abridged history of TorIX? ;)
The recollection of Mr. Waites on our humble beginnings is pretty much =
bang-on. For the first 7 or so years, we were really ad-hoc, but we =
eventually decided that we needed to incorporate. That decision was =
simply due to the fact that we didn=E2=80=99t think we=E2=80=99d be =
taken very seriously by larger players (larger eyeball networks or large =
content networks (either nationally or internationally)) unless we moved =
away from an ad-hoc collection of nothing and no-one, and into an actual =
legal entity. Along with feedback from the participates of our little =
IX, those of us who made up the organizing body of this ad-hoc TorIX =
decided that while a legal organization was an important next step in =
our evolution, incorporating with non-profit status (as opposed to a =
full-blown commercial IX) was the most appropriate method of becoming =
legit. Bill Campbell (former owner Hostopia, former owner Internet =
Direct (later became Look)) put up 100% of the money to incorporate =
TorIX in early 2004.
Second, up until about 2008=E2=80=99ish, whenever we needed gear, we=E2=80=
=99d usually have to pass the hat when we needed a GigE switch or =
something a little more high test than someone=E2=80=99s decommissioned =
FastE kit. The problem with passing the hat is that it rarely makes =
everyone happy because there=E2=80=99s always someone who gets left out. =
The cash in the hat would only give us enough to buy a 12 port switch, =
but inevitably, a few more than 12 participants all donated towards =
buying the switch. The last ones to offer up the cash had to be dropped =
until the next time the hat got passed around. We didn=E2=80=99t think =
asking all our participants to drop money into the hat was an =
appropriate course of action. Not everyone would contribute, for a =
multitude of reasons, but everyone would still expect the same level of =
service. Needless to say, it got messy. It was an inevitable part of =
our growth, sure. It might still be inevitable for any budding IX.
After our incorporation, there were many offers from folks with skids of =
decommissioned 6500s, 6704s and SUP720s. These extremely generous =
donations made it possible for us to turn up our first 10G port, but it =
resulted in other challenges: who would be allowed to occupy the other =
three ports? Do we charge for them? We got the ports for free so HTF =
do we figure this one out, guys? These sorts of dilemmas would cause =
strife, so around 2008, the serving Board at the time decided that the =
next step in our evolution was to make the organization completely =
self-sufficient by introducing a reasonable port fee structure. Port =
fees could let us get space where we felt we needed it. We could buy =
our own gear so anyone would always be able to have any speed port they =
wanted. We could pay for the support contracts, hire lawyers and =
accountants, and also contribute to community initiatives like =
sponsoring the Canadian ISP Summit, NANOG and ARIN. We strive to keep =
our port fees low. 99% of folks never thought our port fees were too =
high. In fact, I can remember a few folks who laughed when we =
introduced port fees asking if they could pay for 5 years up front =
because the port fees were so cheap they were a joke.
The Board introduced a reduced port fee structure across the board for =
2015.
Everyone[1] who contributes to TorIX still does so in a volunteer =
capacity; Board members, the operations group, even our book keeper :)
[1]In 2014, the Board voted in favour of a motion to hire an Executive =
Director to further drive the growth of TorIX. In March, the Board =
announced that Bill Sandiford had accepted the role. In the 18 year =
history of TorIX, the Executive Director role is the first ever paid =
position at TorIX.=
