Spark peering

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark peering

freitasm

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#242084 10-Oct-2018 11:07

Someone on Spark sent me a screenshot showing how it goes all the way to Japan to connect to Cloudflare and ultimately Geekzone, when there's a perfectly good Cloudflare node peering in Auckland:

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#2105485 10-Oct-2018 11:58

Because it is cheaper?

freitasm

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#2105495 10-Oct-2018 12:07

More like because of Spark's (non-)peering policies.

gehenna

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#2105496 10-Oct-2018 12:08

It's always been such an arrogant policy.

surfisup1000

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#2105504 10-Oct-2018 12:13

freitasm:

More like because of Spark's (non-)peering policies.

If there is not a cost reason for this, what is the business reason behind such a policy?

Aredwood

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#2105505 10-Oct-2018 12:14

Spark own a big share of the Southern Cross cable network. So international capacity is effectively free for them.

Although the Samknows testing might force their hand. Only a matter of time before a Stuff article appears, with a big headline saying. Spark internet the slowest according to new tests. And of course a comments section filled with complaints about slow WiFi.

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#2105517 10-Oct-2018 12:29

Wasn’t it a change cloudflare made as well? Because surely the traffic should hit the Australian pop rather than take the scenic route

Beccara

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#2105520 10-Oct-2018 12:33

It's was at one point cheaper for ISP's to buy more transit to Sydney than it was to buy peering with Spark

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michaelmurfy

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#2105528 10-Oct-2018 12:44

Beccara:

It's was at one point cheaper for ISP's to buy more transit to Sydney than it was to buy peering with Spark

I believe it still is which is why many ISP's now go via Australia to reach Spark.

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cisconz

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#2105678 10-Oct-2018 15:58

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

Hmmmm

freitasm

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#2105725 10-Oct-2018 16:31

cisconz:

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

This was many, many years ago. They still peer but only if the CDN or peering company has some heavy traffic - apparently even Cloudflare doesn't qualify for "heavy traffic"...

Talkiet

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#2105746 10-Oct-2018 16:43

freitasm:

cisconz:

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

This was many, many years ago. They still peer but only if the CDN or peering company has some heavy traffic - apparently even Cloudflare doesn't qualify for "heavy traffic"...

I'm always up for looking at new CDN partners but you're correct, last time we checked with Cloudflare the level of traffic would have needed to be an order of magnitude larger than it was to justify the investment of a directly connected CDN. That level will have gone up now as well - but obviously I can't disclose what those levels are publicly. More than happy to discuss it with someone from Cloudflare however if you have a contact and they are happy to sign an NDA.

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dfnt

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#2105764 10-Oct-2018 17:15

I think this is what I read https://blog.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-costs-around-the-world/

Basically because peering is expensive in Australia with Telstra and Optus, Cloudflare serves free customers out of cheaper locations. Not sure if GZ is a free or paid customer of Cloudflare but might explain why it's being served out of Tokyo.

That was two years ago though, but I doubt much has changed over there.

I did notice when I was on Spark that my Unifi Controller, fronted by Cloudflare, was hitting Tokyo but I am a free customer. Same thing with @michaelmurfy's wordpress site at the time.