Peering

What It Means

Peering is the voluntary direct interconnection between two internet networks (Autonomous Systems) for the exchange of traffic originating from their respective customers, typically without settlement payments between the peers. Peering exists in two forms: settlement-free peering (both parties exchange roughly equivalent traffic and neither pays the other), and paid peering or transit (one party pays the other for guaranteed interconnection capacity). When you stream Netflix, your bits may travel from Netflix's network to your ISP either via free peering at an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), via private peering directly between Netflix and your ISP, or via a paid transit provider like Cogent, Tata, or Lumen. Peering quality directly affects streaming and gaming performance, congested peering links cause buffering, video quality drops, and increased latency, even when your last-mile connection is fast. The most famous peering dispute was the 2013 to 2014 standoff between Netflix and Comcast, Level 3, Verizon, and AT&T, during which Netflix publicly documented systematic degradation of its streams due to congested peering interfaces. The dispute was resolved through paid peering agreements and through widespread deployment of Netflix Open Connect CDN caching appliances inside ISP networks. The United States has approximately 100 major Internet Exchange Points, with the largest being Equinix Ashburn (the "MAE-East" of Northern Virginia), Coresite LA, and the Seattle IX. Peering quality is not directly measurable by consumers but manifests in speed test results and streaming quality. The Broadband Grade speed test tool selects geographically close servers to minimize peering-related bias.

Frequently Asked Questions