[88538] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Middle Eastern Exchange Points
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Woodcock)
Thu Feb 9 11:18:50 2006
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 08:08:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Bill Woodcock <woody@pch.net>
To: Michael.Dillon@btradianz.com
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <OFBAAAF732.10BC347B-ON80257110.00373634-80257110.0038B173@btradianz.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 Michael.Dillon@btradianz.com wrote:
> In hindsight, it would have been clearer to refer to these
> places as peering exchanges however back in those days, the important
> distinction wasn't between peering and transit.
There was a significant effort from 2001 to distinguish between "peering
exchanges" and "transit exchanges," and that's something I continue to do
today. However, a "transit exchange" is (and is Definition by Strong
Assertion, since it's not a commonly enough used phrase to have a
definition by general acceptance) a place where multiple buyers and
multiple sellers convene to buy and sell transit in a market environment.
Things like STIX, where there is one seller and multiple buyers, are
indistinguishable from common transit, and therefore _are_ common transit,
which marketing people have slapped a *IX name onto in order to try to
cloak themselves in unearned credibility.
> Is it really worthwhile arguing about what names are used
> in a non-Western country where English is not the language
> normally spoken?
...but English is the language they choose to use for naming these things,
because English the the language in which they gain the unearned
associations.
At least it's one step better than everybody who isn't one calling
themselves a NAP.
-Bill
