Not all providers of IP Transit have the same approach to their network and services.
It is important to know what these differences in approach entail, because they can have a major impact on cost, reliability, and quality. If you don’t ask connectivity providers the right questions, you could receive a service which does not adequately fulfill your requirements.
It can be argued that everything starts with transparency. If your provider is transparent about the service they provide and what methods they utilise, this enables them to be more reliable and provide a high-quality service.
To spread awareness of the questionable methods used today by certain providers, this article outlines some of the main pitfalls to avoid when purchasing IP Transit. We have seen all these examples in real life, to the disadvantage of the customer.
Router Location and Redundancy
It is smart practice to ask a provider whether their router – the one you’re connecting to – is located in the same data centre as you are, or if the router sits in another building, and the provider uses a dark fiber or Layer 2 service to bring the port to your location. This is important because network extensions can introduce additional overhead and latency.
If redundancy is important to you, make sure you ask the right questions to check it is in place. For example, if you order two ports from a provider that are not in an LACP bundle, make sure that those ports are on two separate routers and not on the same router.
Check whether the provider – even if they have two routers – has two different patch panels that go to the meet-me room and if those two meet me rooms are different meet-me rooms. For example, can the provider give you connectivity to meet-me room A from router A and meet-me room B from router B. Again, don’t assume the meaning of terms like “full redundancy” that might be marketing hyperbole.
Increasing Price in a Running Contract
From the commercial side, another pitfall to avoid is dishonest behaviour when it comes to contracts.
Inter.link maintains that while a customer is in a running contract with us, we will not increase the price. If we made a deal for two years, then we adhere to the deal. We do not do anything that was not explicitly agreed in the first place.
Sadly, not all connectivity providers have the same approach to contracts and it is important to be wary of this when purchasing IP Transit. Don’t make an assumption that could end up significantly impacting your finances. Check to be sure.
Is Capacity Guaranteed?
When you when you buy any form of layer two or IP products, you should also ask your provider whether this service is guaranteed in terms of capacity.
If you purchase four times 100G with 40G commitment, can you also send 400G of traffic? This would of course be a traffic mix, but the question still stands of whether it is possible to send 400G.
What type of oversubscription does the provider do in order to ensure your connectivity capacity is guaranteed?
Is the router that you’re connected to as a customer also connected to the backbone of the provider with a minimum of 400G, or even more because there’s more customers on the router?
For example, let’s say there is one router that connects five customers and those five customers have purchased 10 ports, each with 100G. So, the provider has sold one terabit of capacity, but in some cases, the router itself is only connected to the backbone – the next router – with 300G for instance. This means that if all the customers sent 100G, that link towards the next router would be full because it’s only 300G.
This is called over subscription. It is when providers sell more than what they actually have in actual network capacity.
To avoid this pitfall, you should check where you send traffic and verify with the provider that they have proper connectivity and capacity in place.
Know Who Owns the Fiber
If you want to design your redundancy, then you must ask your connectivity provider to show you how their pop is connected to their backbone.
For example, which fiber providers do they use to connect Frankfurt to Dusseldorf? Because if you build your redundancy between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, and you take one route from one provider and one route from a different provider, you want to make sure that these providers are not using any common fiber or if one provider is buying it from the other.
Be aware of the ultimate owner of the infrastructure. If you buy an IP service in Milan, ask who is providing that IP service? Is it actually the provider you are dealing with or are they reselling it from somebody else?
RPKI validation and BGP Communities
Also, from a technical point of view, it is important to ask your provider whether they, Do RPKI validation on the network.
Ask your provider how often they refresh the prefix filters. This is the updating of prefix filters for them to announce new prefixes, new networks, and it gives a view of how their network is functioning.
Also, ask them about BGP communities. They should send you the list. If they don’t have a public list available, that is suspicious and is cause for some concern.
Does the SLA apply specifically to the customer’s port?
In addition, to fully understand the level of support guaranteed for your port, you must verify what the SLA actually applies to.
If the provider does not specifically cover your port, this is bad news for your business continuity if an incident takes place in the network.
Discover whether the provider is applying their SLA to a customer port as well and not just in aggregate to their whole network which could translate to tens of thousands of ports, and dilutes the meaning of the SLA.
What is the level of expertise at the provider’s NOC?
One final thing to check when purchasing IP Transit is the kind of technical support you will receive.
Verify the language that the NOC from the provider is speaking—will you be able to communicate effectively with them? What is the competence level? Check who you would be speaking with when you call at night for help. Is it an engineer or someone without the necessary knowledge? Can you also have a Chat/Slackbridge?
Altering the AS Path
The internet comes with established rules, so to remain honest about their services, there are certain things connectivity providers do not do.
Providers commonly use routing policies to send their traffic on different paths—this is normal. However, if they alter an AS path or make traffic engineering changes in order to give a false impression of how they are routing traffic, this is not right. They should never tamper with the truth of the internet.
For example, a provider who has a connection from A to B to C should not pretend that the connection is only from A to C. This would give a false impression of their network and their service.
Another “trick” that you shouldn’t accept from a provider is if they tilt the global routing table in their favour by changing the BGP route origin (unknown or IGP) of routes to force traffic through their network.
IN CONCLUSION:
Demand Transparency for a More Reliable Service
Ultimately, we recommend that you demand transparency so that you receive a more reliable service. You need to have clarity on how you are connected to a provider’s backbone, and sufficient information about their services and network overall because that is what defines expectations.
If you know you’re receiving a fully redundant service, if you have full insight into who’s providing what, where, from whom, and how. Once you have verified all the details, then you have the ultimate watertight situation that every technician desires. Without that verification, you may be making dangerous assumptions.
Transparency enables a higher level of quality. That’s why it’s best for the service to be operated directly by the provider. Not only more cost-effective, but it means that they have ownership and knowledge and clarity about what that service actually is, so they can provide the transparency you need to be confident.