Carrier hotels and large data centers offer telecommunications and network networks convenient places to interact with other telecommunications companies at the physical level, in a neutral facility offering high density of available media. As telecommunications around the world continue to move toward packet networks and services, Internet protocol exchanges and interconnection points will be even more valuable to the global telecommunications community.
Large networks require compensation from small networks and content providers to use their infrastructure, while the Internet community as a whole requires free access (net neutrality) to the infrastructure used or contracts with large networks based on facilities. Carrier hotels are essential for the survival of small companies that hire to compete with established utilities, including AT & T, Verizon and BellSouth.
Legislation, such as HR 5252, without a specific network neutral protection, will result in the second tier of network providers developing parallel infrastructure using a wireless and physical cable in addition to stronger peering relationships to expand the scope of network infrastructure. Carrier hotels maintain stronger mutual understanding between smaller networks and content providers, allowing a neutral interaction environment, bypassing the large wholesale network infrastructure or transit.
Internet hierarchy
Over the past 15 years, the Internet has been divided into three main levels:
• Level 1 - supporting media. These layer 1 carriers are object based and carry the entire Internet routing table. Internet providers, commonly referred to as Tier 1, include Verizon (formerly UUNET / MCI Internet), Sprint, AT & T, and Cable & Wireless.
• Level 2 - regional and second-level Internet networks. Also, as a rule, based on objects, although it is still easily located on one of the levels 1 for some routing and transit. This includes cable television networks, CLEC and second-tier international carriers such as France Telecom Open Transit and Level 3.
• Level 3 - Access to access networks and content service provider networks.
Peing is a concept that allows networks to have reciprocal agreements that allow traffic to flow directly between their networks, without the need to use a higher level network for this transit. Paid peering is how Tier 2 and Tier 1 networks charge smaller networks to access their backbones or allow subscribers of their networks to access the rest of the Internet world.
The Nutrality network brings together users who can control what content or applications they produce or access, regardless of the level or quality of service. Thus, regardless of whether you pay for the dedicated “all you can eat” port, or if you pay for a usage-based billing model, all you pay for is the ability to send and receive packets at the rate agreed to your contract with a network provider level 2 or higher level 1.
Existing legislation (HR5252) will provide operators with level 2 and level 1 much more control over content produced and applications used by both level 3 networks and content / application providers, but also limits how end users can use network applications. The most common example is voice over internet protocol or VoIP. Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks claim that VoIP requires a higher quality of service, and there are unreasonable demands on the backbone network. They also claim that content service providers, such as Google and Yahoo, can provide their content to users without any fees or fees for basic network providers that are used as transit networks.
Initially, the phrase in HR5252 included a discussion on net neutrality. Network neutrality is the principle that "Internet users should control what content they view and which applications they use on the Internet." From the very beginning, the Internet works on the principle of neutrality of network services, encourages technical innovation, the development of online industries and the creation of a truly global community and market.
The Internet was built with the idea of openness, which was sometimes challenged by restrictive governments, who considered it necessary to restrict the freedom of citizens to access and view open information. With IPv6, governments will continue to find Internet control a complex proposition, since IPSEC will continue to use its capabilities to limit or intercept data.
Carrier hotels and net neutrality support
Carrier is by nature a real estate transaction. Carrier hotels make money by leasing or licensing trail, uninterrupted power, cooling and interconnects. The more interconnections and networks that are present in the property, the more important that this property has become for the community of telecom operators and the network. The rationale is pretty simple. If you are in a carrier hotel, you can usually connect to another network or carrier using a local cross-connection, and in some cases just a jumper cable. If a data center geographically separated from a major hotel operator (for example, One Wilshire, 60 Hudson, The Westin Building or Telehouse) or a tenant in a data center that is operated by an existing carrier, then your connection costs with other network providers and carriers will be much higher.
A carrier hotel, such as One Wilshire, may have more than 300 carriers and service providers represented as tenants within the same building. Most of these tenants will have a direct presence in a building controlled building, which will allow all carriers to easily access each other, since they are all in close proximity.
The Carrier Hotel is a place where Layer 3 and Layer 2 networks, as well as content and application providers, can interact directly. This allows these networks to "verify" without having to send traffic through a transit or large Tier 2/1 carrier. In many cases, smaller providers and content or application providers can be compared as equals, with no money flowing between the networks. This is important in cases where the content provider can send a huge amount of traffic to users of a small network. Both the content provider and the Layer 3 network were likely to pay peering agreements with upstream networks, as a result both companies and their users would pay for the same traffic.
Carrier hotels may also offer additional services or options for level 2 and level 3 networks for connection. Both One Wilshire and 60 Hudson manage service package changes, allowing firewalls (Internet and Internet content / applications) to connect via Internet sharing. Internet sharing, such as the Any2 Exchange One Wilshire, allows network and content providers to connect to the exchange using one high-speed connection and then connect to any or all other exchange participants without the need for physical cables or a power consumption port.
ByPass and batch exchange
The Internet is a rich environment that supports the continuous development of advanced technologies, products and services that support communication. Three areas that have developed rapidly, as well as growth, are voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), interactive entertainment, such as multiplayer games and multimedia content on demand (video). All three require high-performance access to end users, and all three have the potential to generate large amounts of network traffic.
In our broadband access, most end users are connected to their network with high capacity lines, be it ADSL, the Internet via CATV lines or wireless. For an access network, obtaining large amounts of traffic for end users is usually not a big problem, and paying for large volumes of traffic or ports with higher bandwidth can be a factor due to the high operating costs of connecting to a high-speed network provider for paid mutual understanding.
In order to provide a positive end user experience that is clearly needed to retain customers, the access network and content provider must ensure that their users do not have bottlenecks or traffic congestion points between users or content distribution endpoints.
Packages will pass
The Internet was originally designed as a highly reliable network, allowing information packets to route blocks and points of failure in any network. This ability to bypass locks and points of failure has a supernatural parallel in the dynamics of Internet-related business relationships.
Whenever an architecture or business model becomes too restrictive, an alternative model arises or appears. The Internet community, by its very nature, wants neutrality and has historically found ways to circumvent restrictive networks and legal locks, allowing users to communicate freely with each other, regardless of the controls located in the network architecture, politics, security, and monitoring.
Like the Internet packages, the online community will find ways around Tier 1 operators and sites attempting to restrict or restrict applications and services on the public Internet.
VoIP and end of phone networks
VoIP is closely monitored by the government, the telecommunications industry and, most importantly, the end-user community. Pricing, call quality and ease of use are all important topics, as are future rules and security implications when sending calls over a packet network.
VoIP not only has physical network problems, but also has to look to the future on the long-term question of the future of convergence or the integration of video, conferencing, application sharing and network presence. The world of today works in the numbering system called E.164. E.164 is the recommendation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for international and local telephone numbering systems. With VoIP, the E.164 numbering plan is gradually being replaced by network presence indicators, which simply “proxy” your desired identity to the telephone or packet network and report your availability for interactive or non-interactive communication.
Today, the instant messaging ID of users is the best example of an active indicator of presence on the network, but even IM motors quickly add interactive voice modules to their interface. This voice module can either be directly connected to the instant messaging interface, or be “proxied” to the interface via the presence directory.
The nearest proxy service is called ENUM. ENUM registries translate between E.164 telephone numbers and network IP addresses or identifiers. As part of a neutral packet exchange, the ENUM registries allow non-food or backbone VoIP operators to request a database of other VoIP phone numbers and transfer VoIP calls to other IP networks <-> IP, bypassing any traditional transit telephone operators at the completion or termination of "calls". If VoIP operators have reconciliation agreements, this significantly reduces the amount that smaller VoIP carriers have to pay telephone transit providers for the occurrence or termination of telephone traffic, which allows operators to completely bypass the telephone network for an end-to-end VoIP call.
As all networks continue to migrate to packet telephony, even ENUM is gradually becoming obsolete. However, as a utility available in a neutral packet exchange, it can help many smaller networks save enough on operating costs to survive for a much longer period than otherwise.
Content distribution
Caching companies have been around for several years, with the most famous (Akamai) present in almost all large data centers. The reason is simple - put your content as close as possible to the user, and the user will get the best experience. Carrier hotels that support the export of packages fully support the distribution of content. A company like Limelight, which distributes large volumes of media on demand, attracts an attractive hotel carrier because it allows the media to bypass the need for an intermediate or transit network. End-user productivity depends entirely on the performance of the access network.
If net neutrality is not protected under HR5252, then this issue becomes more acute. Both access networks and content owners will incur additional quality of service or bulk delivery charges for delivering high bandwidth applications and content such as VOD or streaming media. When exchanging packages, the content provider can directly connect to all participants in the exchange, and in most cases delivers the content directly through the exchange without a paid peering.
ISP Peering
The ultimate benefit that a carrier operator can offer, in particular an operator of the operator working with neutral Internet or packet exchange, is browsing among its community of Internet providers. In some cases, the dynamics of the Internet will justify sending priority traffic through a single network provider level 2 or level 1. You can enjoy the best performance at the best price. However, as the ISP continues to grow, the burden of payment of transit or charges for the use of providers up to the network can justify a direct peering relationship.
The carrier hotel easily accommodates both physical connections and the exchange of information on the exchange of packages. Packet exchange is best if a large number of peering is required among a large number of peers, and the traffic is not too high. As the traffic to the single network increases, it is possible that the exchange traffic will change to a dedicated physical cross-connect.
conclusions
Carrier hotels and large, neutral data centers are convenient locations for all levels of Internet networks, content providers and application providers. Given concerns about the lack of an effective expression of neutrality in the text of HR 5252, many Tier 2, Tier 3 and Content / Application providers are looking for carrier hotels and neutral Internet exports to help bypass Tier 1 transit. Bypassing will allow smaller networks and content providers to increase network and application performance among participating networks, as well as lower operating costs associated with the use of billing or port charges.
