When understanding network connections, you will wonder about peering. What is a peering connection? A peering connection is a method that allows two networks to be able to connect and exchange traffic directly. You don’t have to pay a third party to carry your traffic across the internet because it does it for you with peering. The internet has over twenty thousand systems that are routing traffic through the internet. As such, peering is used as an efficient method to let these systems interact safely and quickly. It is vital for companies that are interconnected through ISPs, CDNs, or backbone service providers.
Why Peering Is Preferred
By forming a peering agreement with another network while simultaneously avoiding third-party fees or involvement, you are allowing your company to experience the following benefits.
- Lower costs for transit
- An increased bandwidth capacity
- More excellent retention and control of routing paths
- Additional support from peering partners
- Additional access to peering partners
- Increase the redundancy by using several locations
Choose The Type You Need
Private peering is where two separate networks use a colocation facility and run a direct cable between the two. This is done instead of using an exchange point switch. Private peering is beneficial when the networks need to exchange a large amount of traffic. Large amounts of traffic are unable to fit on a shared connection at a particular exchange point.
Public peering, on the other hand, uses an IXP. When done this way, one particular network can peer with various other networks. The peering arrangements also need to be negotiated with each peer. No new cabling will have to be done, however, which offers an additional benefit. With this kind of peering, you may have hundreds of participants spanning over a plethora of different locations across a single city.
Paid peering is arranging one network paying the other network to participate in networking with each other. The final method of peering is known as partial peering, which is similar to paid peering. Partial peering is set up in one area, and it’s designed so that the network traffic is only exchanged in that one area and no others.
Which Will You Use?
Peering is a technique used for businesses and is changing how they connect and get information from one place to another. By understanding this simple solution, you can save your business from a multitude of problems. Save time, money, and stress by understanding what peering can do for your business today.