Should the number of public and private exchange points/facilities be a deciding factor in choosing ISP or not?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Should the number of public and private exchange points/facilities be a deciding factor in choosing ISP or not?

brownie112

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#270411 8-May-2020 10:30

*potentially dumb questions* but asking anyway for learning purposes.

As per title and the image below, some ISPs have lot more public/private peering points than the others.

1. What does this mean?

2. Should this be one of the deciding factors in choosing which ISP you go for?

3. Spark has relatively lower number of peers but they are the only ones who have peering points in Asia (Hong Kong). What does this mean?

4. Do these points/facilities means faster international speeds?

Gordy7

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#2479114 8-May-2020 10:37

Interesting topic.

Can you provide a link to that chart?

Gordy

brownie112

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#2479132 8-May-2020 10:41

Gordy7:

Interesting topic.

Can you provide a link to that chart?

Sorry I made that chart myself in Excel.

Here is the link to the resources:
Spark - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/853
2Deg - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/2695
Voyager - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/3699
Vodafone - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/3273

Gordy7

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#2479139 8-May-2020 10:51

Thanks for the links...

Using any one of them has allowed me to search for another ISP.... Vocus (Orcon) the ISP I use...

https://www.peeringdb.com/net/3798

Gordy

Gordy7

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#2479147 8-May-2020 10:59

Generally speaking though, my deciding factors... reasonable price (for Gbit) and favourable user reports on GZ.

Gordy

hio77

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#2479163 8-May-2020 11:10

brownie112:

Gordy7:

Interesting topic.

Can you provide a link to that chart?

Sorry I made that chart myself in Excel.

Here is the link to the resources:
Spark - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/853
2Deg - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/2695
Voyager - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/3699
Vodafone - https://www.peeringdb.com/net/3273

I'm not going to respond to the topic itself, but i will just point out peeringdb should be used as a guide, it's not always 100% accurate as it depends on being updated and/or setup to automatically provide infomation.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

gaddman

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#2479178 8-May-2020 11:39

Some things to consider:

Not all ISPs keep their PeeringDB entries up to date, so don't take it as gospel
Peering is driven by cost as well as performance
Connectivity != speed. It could mean faster speeds, but you can't really know since it doesn't tell you if the links to that peer are congested, or even if it's taking a shorter path to that peer.
Peering is generally done with content providers or ISPs you're exchanging a lot of traffic with, so smaller ISPs are likely to have fewer peers.

In short, peering counts should be well down the list of factors in choosing an ISP. After price & service, I'd look at SamKnows results (although they haven't done many useful comparisons yet) and maybe look at stuff like what in-house and closely connected CDNs they have (Netflix, Google, etc).

BarTender

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#2479236 8-May-2020 13:30

I would trust bgp.he.net far more than peeringdb.

Spark: https://bgp.he.net/AS4648

2D: https://bgp.he.net/AS23655

Voyager: https://bgp.he.net/AS56030

Vodafone: https://bgp.he.net/AS9500

But really, if you are focused on price vs peers vs speed then chose the ISP you like. But IMHO there are only 3 ISPs worth considering, 2D, Spark/BP or Voyager.

and

boosacnoodle

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#2479244 8-May-2020 13:57

I don't think quantity equals quality.

yitz

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#2479272 8-May-2020 14:47

Don't forget some ISPs use transit provider agreements to reach Internet exchange points beyond their own network.

At a guess Voyager and Vodafone will use transit with direct paths west via Australia and APAC to reach Hong Kong while 2degrees from the thread the other day their peering or transit into Hong Kong or Asia is via the US west coast.

And of course, unless you have an agreement with the provider, these peering and transit arrangements including paths taken are subject to change without notice.

gaddman

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#2479281 8-May-2020 15:21

boosacnoodle:

I don't think quantity equals quality.

Absolutely. Looking at the count of peers at bgp.he.net can be misleading. With the major players like Vodafone and Spark you're going to see a bunch of their customers, eg DHBs and Govt departments (for Vodafone you should look at both AS9500 and AS4768).

taneb1

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#2479299 8-May-2020 15:43

Just adding in https://www.peeringdb.com/net/7924 - https://bgp.he.net/AS55850#_peers

As others have said, PeeringDB relies on the ISP/Network keeping their records up to date, HE is likely to be more accurate.

Any comments made are my personal views and does not represent those of my employer

webwat

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#2479586 9-May-2020 03:39

It means that Spark doesn't believe in peering in NZ, they like to maintain as much of their monopoly as they have left so require NZ ISPs to pay them for interconnection. I don't think its really a big deal, there are many ways to skin a cat and ISPs will buy bandwidth in a way that affects peering differently. I don't think you can judge them on a simple metric of where they peer unless you need peering in a certain location.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^