What is peering?

Peering is a voluntary inter-connection of separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network. The pure definition of peering is settlement-free or "sender keeps all," meaning that neither party pays the other for the exchanged traffic; instead, each derives revenue from its own customers.

Peering requires physical inter-connection of the networks, an exchange of routing information through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol and is often accompanied by peering agreements of varying formality, from "handshake" to thick contracts.

How does peering work?

The Internet is a collection of separate and distinct networks, each one operating under a common framework of globally unique IP addressing and global BGP routing.

What are the Benefits of Peering

Peering involves two networks coming together to exchange traffic with each other freely, and for mutual benefit. This 'mutual benefit' is most often the motivation behind peering, which is often described solely by "reduced costs for transit services". Other less tangible motivations can include:

• Increased redundancy (by reducing dependence on one or more transit providers).
• Increased capacity for extremely large amounts of traffic (distributing traffic across many networks).
• Increased routing control over your traffic.
• Improved performance (attempting to bypass potential bottlenecks with a "direct" path).
• Improved perception of your network (being able to claim a "higher tier").
• Ease of requesting for emergency aid (from friendly peers).

OneDotCom peering partners

OneDotCom executes an open peering policy, these agreements provide OneDotCom customer traffic with a more direct route to its destination, thereby improving their experience on the Internet. OneDotCom currently peers at JINX, CINX and NAPAfrica.

International

• KDDI
• Cogentco
• Level 3
• TiNet

Local

• Telkom – Saix
• XDSL
• MWEB
• Neology
•  Imagine Networks
• WebAfrica
• Ensync / AfricaINX
• ECHO SP
• Looging Glass
• Posix
• Uniforum