The Difference Between Tier 1 and Tier 2 ISPs
The three tiers of Internet Service Providers serve as a foundational concept within Internet...
IP Transit is a distinct type of Internet access service that differs from consumer broadband or Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), which is a business-class service meant for businesses to provide high-speed access to Internet resources for their internal users, rather than to serve content to external Internet users.
Digital businesses and business-class ISPs use IP transit services to ensure great experiences for their consumers and subscribers via low latency traffic delivery to the Internet networks where those users are connected. In this article, we'll cover:
The Internet is a vast collection of interconnected IP networks. Simply put, there are three types of networks:
How to Buy IP Transit Services
IP Transit Service delivers your content or application traffic to users with high-performance across an ISP's transit network.
Buying Internet transit service includes two components:
Cost and Contracts: The cost of IP Transit services can vary based on factors like bandwidth requirements, geographical location, and the quality of service.
"Even today, many IP Transit providers require customers to follow telco-style sales process with opaque pricing. However, the advent of cloud and SaaS has changed IT buyer expectations. Modern IP transit should be both consumable and flexible, not just regarding the sales process, but the technology as well."
Theo Voss
CEO and Co-Founder, Inter.link
When buying IP Transit Services you should consider:
ISP Tier
Tier 1 ISPs run global networks and don't need to purchase transit from any other ISPs. They only trade Internet traffic ("peer") with other Tier 1 networks to reach the full Internet. Tier 1 only applies to the largest and most global Internet providers.
These larger ISPs with extensive network infrastructure can offer wider or even global reach and scalability, allowing businesses to expand their services globally without needing to establish multiple individual peering relationships. However, higher tier ISPs charge a premium for their services. Also, they tend to not peer as much as Tier 2 ISPs and make decisions based on commercial criteria over routing quality. Therefore, Tier 2 ISPs sometimes offer better and shorter routes to certain networks.
Tier 2 ISPs use both paid transit from Tier 1 ISPs and peering (traffic trading) with other Tier 2s to reach the full Internet. Tier 2 ISPs commonly connect to peers via Internet Exchange Points operated by specialized IXP providers. As noted above, Tier 2 ISPs prioritize route quality (depth) more than just breadth of coverage, which means they can offer better routes to certain networks. For example, a Tier 2 provider can offer particularly strong routes in Europe or Asia.
Tier 2 ISPs are typically more competitive price-wise than Tier 1s. A portfolio of Tier 2 ISPs provides reach of a single Tier 1 in a more cost-effective fashion. Tier 2 providers can also serve as backups to Tier 1 connectivity.
Tier 3 ISPs aren't Transit Providers. They only use paid transit from upstream providers and provide access to the internet to downstream customers. In other words, Tier 3 ISPs are transit customers themselves.
Autonomous System Ranking
The AS Rank on Caida.org shows the reach of the Transit Provider to get your traffic reliably and with high quality to your users. This ranking comes in handy when considering Tier 2 ISPs. You can see the AS Ranking at https://asrank.caida.org/asns.
Note that the ASNs for credible regional providers rank well into the 100's. Examples include Turk Telekom (107), Softbank Japan (111), and Belgacom (141). Inter.link's main historical ASN 25291 holds a AS Rank of 105 on the Caida site.
Historically, buying IP Transit Service was a slow and involved process. Even today, many providers require customers to follow telco-style sales process with opaque pricing. However, the advent of cloud and SaaS has changed IT buyer expectations, and IP Transit Providers are following suite. Modern IP transit should be both consumable and flexible.
In practice, this means you should be able to register for a self-service portal, see transparent pricing, and start provisioning immediately. In addition, like the cloud, once you’ve established your connectivity, you should be able to easily and flexibly upscale your transit bandwidth in minutes.
All Internet connections are inherently vulnerable to DDoS attacks that can easily hundreds of gigabits per second. For businesses that derive significant revenues from providing content or connectivity services over the Internet, protecting your network connectivity is particularly important to maintaining service uptime.
Defending your Internet backbone network infrastructure against DDoS means minimizing the ability of attackers to shut down your service delivery from your ip addresses or prefixes, inclusive of IPv4 and IPv6. There are relatively crude ways to do this on your own by enabling routing policies. For example, when under attack, you can configure your routers to communicate blackhole BGP communities to upstream providers in order to stop attack traffic from reaching a particular prefix. However, this is self-defeating since you’re essentially turning off Internet communications for that address range.
The constraints of self-engineered DDoS protection mean that most network teams turn to DDoS protection providers. While there are external DDoS protection providers, the most convenient and cost-effective way to get in-depth defense against DDoS attacks is to buy IP transit from a provider that has an integrated DDoS protection service within its own network.
Corporations are increasingly concerned with IT sustainability. Procuring sustainable network services supports climate and carbon footprint objectives. Unfortunately, most providers are only offering sustainability targets set to 2035 or later.
Certifications are key to ensuring that services you buy will support your ESG objectives. For example, Inter.link is a certified B Corporation. Inter.link also received the PAS 2060 Carbon Neutral Certification from TÜV SÜD.
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