Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard A Steenbergen
On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 10:00:52PM -0800, Richard Bennett wrote:
 I haven't found a good source who knows what's going on outside his own
 network.

Mr. Bennett,

You know when I first read your post, I assumed you were just ignorant
and confused about the topic of peering on the Internet. Then I saw you
actively refusing to listen to intelligent feedback by some of the most
experienced network operators and peering managers in the industry,
dismiss any idea that you didn't agree with as part of the Google
conspiracy, and further embarrass yourself with comments which proved
you lacked understanding of even the most basic concepts of peering or
inter-network traffic exchange. Normally I would just write you off as
another Dean Anderson style nutjob, but I'm afraid that your ramblings
are so wrong and your closed-mindedness is so severe that you are
actually dangerous to anyone who might happen to read your comments and
think that they are in any way correct. Therefore, I think it is
important for all of us that you be refuted.

I'll start with a few points from your post and comments. You said:

 I'm not sure that your 'on-net routes' is the same product as the Paid
 Peering that Norton is interpreting; the Arbor study found a large
 increase in the traffic that moves through these transit bypass paths,
 and that's the actual story. While this service may have been
 available for a while, its use is radically increasing. That's data,
 BTW, not anecdote, so if you have a problem with the Arbor data,
 you'll need some data of your own to refute it.

For starters, if you aren't sure what on-net routes and paid peering 
even are, maybe you shouldn't be trying to comment on them. Second, the 
Arbor study said absolutely NOTHING about an increase in traffic that 
moves via peering vs transit, to say nothing of paid vs settlement free 
peering. Arbor is completely and totally unable to identify anything 
about money exchanged for bits in general, and from a technical 
perspective there is absolute no difference between a paid and non-paid 
peering.

You seem to be convoluting the purported increase in traffic between
tier 2 networks with a completely absurd belief that all traffic
between tier 1's was transit and all traffic between tier 2's is
peering. In reality, tier 2's routinely buy from and sell to each other,
peer with some tier 1's, and sell paid peering between themselves when 
the business opportunities arise.

You later go on to state:

 The Arbor study is evidence that traffic is shifting, and the
 carrier-neutral peering site managers I've spoken with tell me they're
 making something like 300 cross-connects a month. Do you think all
 those cross-connnects are implementing settlement-free peering or
 conventional transit agreements? I'm surmising that they aren't.

You have absolutely no basis to make the determination about what 
percentage of the crossconnects are peering and what percentage are 
transit. This is what we tried to explain to you with the you can't 
know this about any network but your own answer, which you seemed 
completely incapable of understanding. The reality is that no one can 
know the answer for anything but themselves. For my network, I'd say 
much less than 20% of our crossconnects are peering, with the vast 
majority being customers, and a significant amount being intra-network 
capacity (intra-pop, metro, and long-haul circuits) and transit. The 
number may vary between networks, but again you have absolutely zero 
basis to make any kind of claim about peering let alone settlement-free 
vs paid based on the number of crossconnects in a colo.

Most of the other arguments are either meaningless or fall apart once 
you remove some of the fundamental misunderstandings above, but there 
are still plenty of other things which are completely absurd. For 
example, you said:

 Paid peering is a better level of access to an ISP's customers for a
 fee, but the fee is less than the price of generic access to the ISP
 via a transit network. The practice of paid peering also reduces the
 load on the Internet core, so what's not to like? Paid peering
 agreements should be offered for sale on a non-discriminatory basis,
 but they certainly shouldn't be banned.

Paid peering (or peering of any kind) is absolutely no guarantee of
better access to any network, nor is it guaranteed (or even likely) to
reduce costs. There is also no such thing as load on the Internet core
to reduce, and this further illustrates a complete failure to understand
how the Internet works in general. 

Paid peering is simply another form of transit, where two networks agree
to exchange money for the service of delivering connectivity. The only
difference is that you're only selling a portion of the routing table
rather than the whole thing, for a specific subset of routes which
have different properties than the rest. In the case of paid peering,
the different property is that you'll get to bill your customer on 

Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard Bennett
   Thank you for your insights.
   Richard A Steenbergen wrote:

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 10:00:52PM -0800, Richard Bennett wrote:


I haven't found a good source who knows what's going on outside his own
network.


Mr. Bennett,

You know when I first read your post, I assumed you were just ignorant
and confused about the topic of peering on the Internet. Then I saw you
actively refusing to listen to intelligent feedback by some of the most
experienced network operators and peering managers in the industry,
dismiss any idea that you didn't agree with as part of the Google
conspiracy, and further embarrass yourself with comments which proved
you lacked understanding of even the most basic concepts of peering or
inter-network traffic exchange. Normally I would just write you off as
another Dean Anderson style nutjob, but I'm afraid that your ramblings
are so wrong and your closed-mindedness is so severe that you are
actually dangerous to anyone who might happen to read your comments and
think that they are in any way correct. Therefore, I think it is
important for all of us that you be refuted.

I'll start with a few points from your post and comments. You said:



I'm not sure that your 'on-net routes' is the same product as the Paid
Peering that Norton is interpreting; the Arbor study found a large
increase in the traffic that moves through these transit bypass paths,
and that's the actual story. While this service may have been
available for a while, its use is radically increasing. That's data,
BTW, not anecdote, so if you have a problem with the Arbor data,
you'll need some data of your own to refute it.


For starters, if you aren't sure what on-net routes and paid peering
even are, maybe you shouldn't be trying to comment on them. Second, the
Arbor study said absolutely NOTHING about an increase in traffic that
moves via peering vs transit, to say nothing of paid vs settlement free
peering. Arbor is completely and totally unable to identify anything
about money exchanged for bits in general, and from a technical
perspective there is absolute no difference between a paid and non-paid
peering.

You seem to be convoluting the purported increase in traffic between
tier 2 networks with a completely absurd belief that all traffic
between tier 1's was transit and all traffic between tier 2's is
peering. In reality, tier 2's routinely buy from and sell to each other,
peer with some tier 1's, and sell paid peering between themselves when
the business opportunities arise.

You later go on to state:



The Arbor study is evidence that traffic is shifting, and the
carrier-neutral peering site managers I've spoken with tell me they're
making something like 300 cross-connects a month. Do you think all
those cross-connnects are implementing settlement-free peering or
conventional transit agreements? I'm surmising that they aren't.


You have absolutely no basis to make the determination about what
percentage of the crossconnects are peering and what percentage are
transit. This is what we tried to explain to you with the you can't
know this about any network but your own answer, which you seemed
completely incapable of understanding. The reality is that no one can
know the answer for anything but themselves. For my network, I'd say
much less than 20% of our crossconnects are peering, with the vast
majority being customers, and a significant amount being intra-network
capacity (intra-pop, metro, and long-haul circuits) and transit. The
number may vary between networks, but again you have absolutely zero
basis to make any kind of claim about peering let alone settlement-free
vs paid based on the number of crossconnects in a colo.

Most of the other arguments are either meaningless or fall apart once
you remove some of the fundamental misunderstandings above, but there
are still plenty of other things which are completely absurd. For
example, you said:



Paid peering is a better level of access to an ISP's customers for a
fee, but the fee is less than the price of generic access to the ISP
via a transit network. The practice of paid peering also reduces the
load on the Internet core, so what's not to like? Paid peering
agreements should be offered for sale on a non-discriminatory basis,
but they certainly shouldn't be banned.


Paid peering (or peering of any kind) is absolutely no guarantee of
better access to any network, nor is it guaranteed (or even likely) to
reduce costs. There is also no such thing as load on the Internet core
to reduce, and this further illustrates a complete failure to understand
how the Internet works in general.

Paid peering is simply another form of transit, where two networks agree
to exchange money for the service of delivering connectivity. The only
difference is that you're only selling a portion of the routing table
rather than the whole thing, for a specific subset of routes which
have different properties than the rest. In the case of paid peering,
the different property is that 

Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread William Allen Simpson

Richard Bennett wrote:

   Speculation about how the money flows is a worthwhile activity.


Sure, no problem.


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC


In summary, Mr Bennett is an unregistered lobbyist, employed by other
registered lobbyists.

It's really a waste of time to engage him, as it's his full-time job to
write his screed.  We have neither the time nor manpower.

  It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary
  depends upon his not understanding it! -- Upton Sinclair (1935)

http://www.itif.org/index.php?s=staff

He claims to have been involved in IEEE Wi-Fi for 15 years.  Meaning he's
one of those responsible for the bad security (WEP, etc.), and the
stagnation of ad hoc networking -- because the industry has a centralized
solution they want to sell, customer be damned.

His bio also says he was vice-chair for the hub standard, so prevented
jumbo frames from being formally adopted -- again, customer be damned.

Now, he works for a think tank called Information Technology 
Innovation Foundation.  Basically, he goes to conferences.  He's not
responsible for operating any networks or doing any actual engineering.

ITIF doesn't give out information about its funding, which usually means
it's industry lobbyist funded.  Apparently in this case, big cable and
probably big telco.

They're opposed to net neutrality, and (based on his comments and several
of the papers) still think the Internet is some kind of bastard child that
needs adult supervision in the middle -- by which they mean themselves
/in loco parentis/.

Looking at the board, it's populated by ultra-conservative wing-nut
Republicans, and some Conservadems (as we call them in political circles,
they call themselves centrists) from the New Democrat Caucus for
bi-partisan cover.  And lots of lobbyists -- Federal lobbyists -- who
seem to list their educational clients on their bio, but not whether
they are also employed by a firm that represents other clients



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard Bennett
Now you've descended from Steenbergen's hair-splitting between on-net 
routes (the mechanism) vs. on-net access (the actual product) into 
Simpson's straight-up lying. ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality 
in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network 
Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63. There is not a single 
ultra-conservative on the ITIF board, they're all either moderate 
Democrats or moderate Republicans.


I'm letting most of this childish venting slide, but I will point out 
the bald-faced lies.


RB

William Allen Simpson wrote:

They're opposed to net neutrality, and (based on his comments and several
of the papers) still think the Internet is some kind of bastard child 
that

needs adult supervision in the middle -- by which they mean themselves
/in loco parentis/.

Looking at the board, it's populated by ultra-conservative wing-nut
Republicans, and some Conservadems (as we call them in political circles,
they call themselves centrists) from the New Democrat Caucus for
bi-partisan cover.  And lots of lobbyists -- Federal lobbyists -- who
seem to list their educational clients on their bio, but not whether
they are also employed by a firm that represents other clients


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC




RE: [SPAM-HEADER] - Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering - Email has different SMTP TO: and MIME TO: fields in the email addresses

2009-11-25 Thread Rod Beck
Hi Richard, 

I am late to this dicussion. So I don't have a full understanding of the 
context or history of this debate. 

It is clear to many of us that Telcos lost the content wars and this is their 
way of trying to get a slice of the content providers (Google, Microsoft, etc.) 
add revenues. 

It's a power play and way of trying to change the rules in the fourth quarter. 

Needless to say, these are my own personal opinions. 

Roderick S. Beck 
Director of European Sales 
Hibernia Atlantic 
Budapest, New York, and Paris 
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com 


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Paul Wall
RB-

Where can we find data on your group's funding sources?

If we're to continue this discussion, we need to establish bias and
motive, which you've not covered on your own accord.

Drive Slow,
Paul Wall

On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett rich...@bennett.com wrote:
 Now you've descended from Steenbergen's hair-splitting between on-net
 routes (the mechanism) vs. on-net access (the actual product) into
 Simpson's straight-up lying. ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality
 in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network
 Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63. There is not a single
 ultra-conservative on the ITIF board, they're all either moderate
 Democrats or moderate Republicans.

 I'm letting most of this childish venting slide, but I will point out
 the bald-faced lies.

 RB

 William Allen Simpson wrote:
 They're opposed to net neutrality, and (based on his comments and several
 of the papers) still think the Internet is some kind of bastard child
 that
 needs adult supervision in the middle -- by which they mean themselves
 /in loco parentis/.

 Looking at the board, it's populated by ultra-conservative wing-nut
 Republicans, and some Conservadems (as we call them in political circles,
 they call themselves centrists) from the New Democrat Caucus for
 bi-partisan cover.  And lots of lobbyists -- Federal lobbyists -- who
 seem to list their educational clients on their bio, but not whether
 they are also employed by a firm that represents other clients

 --
 Richard Bennett
 Research Fellow
 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
 Washington, DC




-- 
Sent from my mobile device



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Aaron Cossey
Would you care to elaborate on how the investigation of someones
funding sources is operationally relevant to the rest of the list?

Aaron Cossey
aaron.cos...@gmail.com




On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Paul Wall pauldotw...@gmail.com wrote:
 RB-

 Where can we find data on your group's funding sources?

 If we're to continue this discussion, we need to establish bias and
 motive, which you've not covered on your own accord.

 Drive Slow,
 Paul Wall

 On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett rich...@bennett.com wrote:
 Now you've descended from Steenbergen's hair-splitting between on-net
 routes (the mechanism) vs. on-net access (the actual product) into
 Simpson's straight-up lying. ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality
 in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network
 Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63. There is not a single
 ultra-conservative on the ITIF board, they're all either moderate
 Democrats or moderate Republicans.

 I'm letting most of this childish venting slide, but I will point out
 the bald-faced lies.

 RB

 William Allen Simpson wrote:
 They're opposed to net neutrality, and (based on his comments and several
 of the papers) still think the Internet is some kind of bastard child
 that
 needs adult supervision in the middle -- by which they mean themselves
 /in loco parentis/.

 Looking at the board, it's populated by ultra-conservative wing-nut
 Republicans, and some Conservadems (as we call them in political circles,
 they call themselves centrists) from the New Democrat Caucus for
 bi-partisan cover.  And lots of lobbyists -- Federal lobbyists -- who
 seem to list their educational clients on their bio, but not whether
 they are also employed by a firm that represents other clients

 --
 Richard Bennett
 Research Fellow
 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
 Washington, DC




 --
 Sent from my mobile device





Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Randy Bush
 Would you care to elaborate on how the investigation of someones
 funding sources is operationally relevant to the rest of the list?

please no

we have a greedy troll.  stop feeding it.  procmail is your friend.

randy



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard Bennett
   I didn't bring this discussion over here, hippie.
   Randy Bush wrote:

Would you care to elaborate on how the investigation of someones
funding sources is operationally relevant to the rest of the list?


please no

we have a greedy troll.  stop feeding it.  procmail is your friend.

randy



--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Valdis . Kletnieks
On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:02 PST, Richard Bennett said:

ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality 
 in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network 
 Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63.

All of four paragraphs, which don't in fact address what the provider is or is
not providing to Joe Sixpack - point 1 says discriminatory plans are OK as long
as the discriminatory are on display in the cellar of the ISP office, with no
stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory
with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

And points 2 and 3 are saying that this should all be overseen by the same
agencies that oversaw the previous decade's massive buildout of fiber to the
home that was financed by massive multi-billion dollar incentives.

Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber buildout had
happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that neutrality wouldn't be an issue...

But then, the Republicans keep saying they are not opposed to health care
reform in principle either...



pgpRq7aOS0atP.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Jared Mauch

On Nov 25, 2009, at 10:13 AM, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote:

 On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:02 PST, Richard Bennett said:
 
   ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality 
 in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network 
 Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63.
 
 All of four paragraphs, which don't in fact address what the provider is or is
 not providing to Joe Sixpack - point 1 says discriminatory plans are OK as 
 long
 as the discriminatory are on display in the cellar of the ISP office, with no
 stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory
 with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.
 
 And points 2 and 3 are saying that this should all be overseen by the same
 agencies that oversaw the previous decade's massive buildout of fiber to the
 home that was financed by massive multi-billion dollar incentives.
 
 Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber buildout had
 happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that neutrality wouldn't be an issue...
 
 But then, the Republicans keep saying they are not opposed to health care
 reform in principle either...
 

Me, I'm reminded of the fact that those on the edge of suburban areas have 
fewer choices than those in purely rural areas.  Some carriers have been formed 
just to solve the basic telephony access issues of PSTN recently, eg:

http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_dont_mad_ilec/

Me? I want to see a ban on replacing copper based networking as part of the 
outside plant.

- Jared

http://www.allband.org/


RE: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Ivan Pepelnjak
 Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber 
 buildout had happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that 
 neutrality wouldn't be an issue...

Maybe this is how the fiber got used :))

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFoG




Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard Bennett
   Click through to the PDF, it's a 16 page paper.
   RB
   [1]valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote:

On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:02 PST, Richard Bennett said:


   ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality
in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network
Neutrality, [2]http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63.

All of four paragraphs, which don't in fact address what the provider is or is
not providing to Joe Sixpack - point 1 says discriminatory plans are OK as long
as the discriminatory are on display in the cellar of the ISP office, with no
stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory
with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

And points 2 and 3 are saying that this should all be overseen by the same
agencies that oversaw the previous decade's massive buildout of fiber to the
home that was financed by massive multi-billion dollar incentives.

Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber buildout had
happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that neutrality wouldn't be an issue...

But then, the Republicans keep saying they are not opposed to health care
reform in principle either...


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC

References

   1. mailto:valdis.kletni...@vt.edu
   2. http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Darren Bolding
Whether or not Mr Bennett has any idea what he is talking about- and I have
started to develop an opinion on that subject myself- I really would rather
not see Nanog become a forum for partisan political discussion.  There are
_lots_ of places for that, which as a political junkie I read regularly.

I like Nanog in part because it typically steers clear of this sort of thing
(and you know the mailing list charter sez) and in some way serves as a
refreshing change between reading Daily Kos and Powerline blogs.

I will also say that while Mr Bennett's affiliation and paycheck have some
relevance to interpreting what he says, it isn't justification for tossing
everything he says out.  If he seems to have no idea what he is talking
about, that is reason for tossing out what he says.

One final point- referring to conservadems is about as telling about
perspective as certain people referring to RINO's.  Bennett hasn't said
anything blatantly partisan (perhaps he is to polished for that), his
critics certainly have.  You diminish your argument by doing so.

I say all this even though some of the people getting engaged in this are
people I've known for a while and respect a great deal, and others are ones
I've read on Nanog for a number of years.

I'm actually intersted in the substantive content, but I'd rather avoid the
rest if you wouldn't mind.

Thanks for listening,

--D


On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 7:13 AM, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote:

 On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:02 PST, Richard Bennett said:

 ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality
  in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network
  Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63.

 All of four paragraphs, which don't in fact address what the provider is or
 is
 not providing to Joe Sixpack - point 1 says discriminatory plans are OK as
 long
 as the discriminatory are on display in the cellar of the ISP office, with
 no
 stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused
 lavatory
 with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

 And points 2 and 3 are saying that this should all be overseen by the same
 agencies that oversaw the previous decade's massive buildout of fiber to
 the
 home that was financed by massive multi-billion dollar incentives.

 Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber buildout had
 happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that neutrality wouldn't be an
 issue...

 But then, the Republicans keep saying they are not opposed to health care
 reform in principle either...




-- 
--  Darren Bolding  --
--  dar...@bolding.org   --


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard Bennett
(pardon me if this message is not formatted correctly, T-bird doesn't 
like this list)


I agree that this is not the proper venue for discussion of the politics 
of Internet regulation; the post I wrote for GigaOm has comments 
enabled, and many people with an anti-capitalist bone to pick have 
already availed themselves of that forum to advocate for the people's 
revolution. There are some technical issues that might be of more 
interest and relevance to operators, however.


* One claim I made in my blog post is that traffic increases on the 
Internet aren't measured by MINTS very well. MINTS uses data from 
Meet-me switches, but IX's and colos are pulling x-connects like mad so 
more and more traffic is passing directly through the x-connects and 
therefore not being captured by MINTS. Rate of traffic increase is 
important for regulators as it relates to the cost of running an ISP and 
the need for traffic shaping. Seems to me that MINTS understates traffic 
growth, and people are dealing with it by lighting more dark fiber, 
pulling more fiber, and the x-connects are the tip of the iceberg that 
says this is going on.


* A number of people said I have no basis for the claim that paid 
peering is on the increase, and it's true that the empirical data is 
slim due to the secretive nature of peering and transit agreements. This 
claim is based on hearsay and on the observation that Comcast now has a 
nationwide network and a very open policy regarding peering and paid 
peering. So if paid peering is only increasing at Comcast, now a top 10 
network, it's increasing overall.


* Some other people said I'm not entitled to have an opinion; so much 
for democracy and free speech.


I'd be glad to hear from anyone who has data or informed opinions on 
these subjects, on-list of off-. The reason you should share is that 
people in Washington and Brussels listen to me, so it's in everybody's 
interest for me to be well-informed; I don't really have an ax to grind 
one way or another, but I do want law and regulation to be based on 
fact, not speculation and ideology.


Thanks and have a nice day.

RB

Darren Bolding wrote:
Whether or not Mr Bennett has any idea what he is talking about- and I 
have started to develop an opinion on that subject myself- I really 
would rather not see Nanog become a forum for partisan political 
discussion.  There are _lots_ of places for that, which as a political 
junkie I read regularly. 

I like Nanog in part because it typically steers clear of this sort of 
thing (and you know the mailing list charter sez) and in some way 
serves as a refreshing change between reading Daily Kos and Powerline 
blogs.


I will also say that while Mr Bennett's affiliation and paycheck have 
some relevance to interpreting what he says, it isn't justification 
for tossing everything he says out.  If he seems to have no idea what 
he is talking about, that is reason for tossing out what he says.


One final point- referring to conservadems is about as telling about 
perspective as certain people referring to RINO's.  Bennett hasn't 
said anything blatantly partisan (perhaps he is to polished for that), 
his critics certainly have.  You diminish your argument by doing so.


I say all this even though some of the people getting engaged in this 
are people I've known for a while and respect a great deal, and others 
are ones I've read on Nanog for a number of years.


I'm actually intersted in the substantive content, but I'd rather 
avoid the rest if you wouldn't mind.


Thanks for listening,

--D


On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 7:13 AM, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu 
mailto:valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote:


On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:02 PST, Richard Bennett said:

ITIF is not opposed to network neutrality
 in principle, having released a paper on A Third Way on Network
 Neutrality, http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=63.

All of four paragraphs, which don't in fact address what the
provider is or is
not providing to Joe Sixpack - point 1 says discriminatory plans
are OK as long
as the discriminatory are on display in the cellar of the ISP
office, with no
stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a
disused lavatory
with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

And points 2 and 3 are saying that this should all be overseen by
the same
agencies that oversaw the previous decade's massive buildout of
fiber to the
home that was financed by massive multi-billion dollar incentives.

Oh wait, those billions got pocketed - if the massive fiber
buildout had
happened, we'd have so much bandwidth that neutrality wouldn't be
an issue...

But then, the Republicans keep saying they are not opposed to
health care
reform in principle either...




--
--  Darren Bolding  --
--  dar...@bolding.org mailto:dar...@bolding.org   --


--
Richard Bennett
Research 

Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard A Steenbergen
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 02:29:33PM -0800, Richard Bennett wrote:
 (pardon me if this message is not formatted correctly, T-bird doesn't 
 like this list)
 
 I agree that this is not the proper venue for discussion of the
 politics of Internet regulation; the post I wrote for GigaOm has
 comments enabled, and many people with an anti-capitalist bone to pick
 have already availed themselves of that forum to advocate for the
 people's revolution. There are some technical issues that might be of
 more interest and relevance to operators, however.

So now anyone who points out the massive flaws in your statements are
part of an anti-capitalist movement? Any more conspiracy theories you'd
like to put forward? I can't speak for anyone else, but personally I
consider myself very pro-capitalism and it has absolutely no impact on
how I feel about the blatantly wrong and baseless crap you are spewing.

 * One claim I made in my blog post is that traffic increases on the
 Internet aren't measured by MINTS very well. MINTS uses data from
 Meet-me switches, but IX's and colos are pulling x-connects like mad
 so more and more traffic is passing directly through the x-connects
 and therefore not being captured by MINTS. Rate of traffic increase is
 important for regulators as it relates to the cost of running an ISP
 and the need for traffic shaping. Seems to me that MINTS understates
 traffic growth, and people are dealing with it by lighting more dark
 fiber, pulling more fiber, and the x-connects are the tip of the
 iceberg that says this is going on.

This is all completely irrelevent to everything else that has been
discussed so far, but what the hell I'll bite. Traffic on the Internet
is indeed growing rapidly, while the predominate technology for cost
effectively interconnecting the vast majority of the bits (10 Gigabit
Ethernet) has remained relatively static in recent years. Without a cost
effective technology for interconnecting devices in  10Gbps increments
(40Gbps OC-768 has existed for a while, but is far more expensive than
simply doing 4x10GbE), the only reasonable way to scale a network is to
build your links out of Nx10G bundles. In places with reasonable
crossconnect pricing, it is far cheaper to simply order multiple
crossconnects than it is to pay for DWDM gear, and thus you see a rapid
increase in fiber crossconnects.

 * A number of people said I have no basis for the claim that paid
 peering is on the increase, and it's true that the empirical data is
 slim due to the secretive nature of peering and transit agreements.
 This claim is based on hearsay and on the observation that Comcast now
 has a nationwide network and a very open policy regarding peering and
 paid peering. So if paid peering is only increasing at Comcast, now a
 top 10 network, it's increasing overall.

So in other words, you're admitting that you have absolutely no basis
for your claim, and you're simply making it up based on indirect hearsay 
modified with your own ill-informed conclusions? First intelligent thing 
you've said so far.

If you actually bothered to ask anyone in the industry with experience 
dealing with Comcast, they would tell you that while Comcast initially 
entered the market primarily trying to sell paid peering, they have 
since switched their efforts to primarily selling full transit. There 
are only a certain number of networks who even know what to DO with a 
paid peering product, and a vastly larger number who know what to do 
with a transit product, so it makes perfect sense really.

 * Some other people said I'm not entitled to have an opinion; so much
 for democracy and free speech.

You are not entitled to opine an opinion on a subject matter which you
do not understand, without being called out for it. Sane and rational
people understand when they are talking out their ass and are being
corrected by knowledgable experts, and will shut the hell up and listen.
Sadly this seems to be a skill you lack.

 I'd be glad to hear from anyone who has data or informed opinions on
 these subjects, on-list of off-. The reason you should share is that
 people in Washington and Brussels listen to me, so it's in everybody's
 interest for me to be well-informed; I don't really have an ax to
 grind one way or another, but I do want law and regulation to be based
 on fact, not speculation and ideology.

So far none of the above statements seem to be true.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen r...@e-gerbil.net   http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-25 Thread Richard A Steenbergen
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 02:29:33PM -0800, Richard Bennett wrote:
 * One claim I made in my blog post is that traffic increases on the 
 Internet aren't measured by MINTS very well. MINTS uses data from 
 Meet-me switches, but IX's and colos are pulling x-connects like mad so 
 more and more traffic is passing directly through the x-connects and 
 therefore not being captured by MINTS. Rate of traffic increase is 
 important for regulators as it relates to the cost of running an ISP and 
 the need for traffic shaping. Seems to me that MINTS understates traffic 
 growth, and people are dealing with it by lighting more dark fiber, 
 pulling more fiber, and the x-connects are the tip of the iceberg that 
 says this is going on.

Oh also I forgot to mention that trying to map a direct relationship
between IX traffic growth and total IP traffic growth is completely
bogus. There is a significant modifier you're missing, and it's called
price. Two years ago the price for an IX port at the large commercial
exchange points in the US (which account for the vast majority of the
traffic, no offense to the small non-comercial exchanges out there) was
between 4-7x higher than the price for the same ports today. The reason
for the price drop had nothing to do with changing economics of
providing the service, but rather it was because of a wide-spread price
war between the two largest IX operators in the US. Such a massive
change in the economics for the IP network operators will obviously
result in major changes to the amount of traffic delivered over IX
fabrics vs private interconnection. Again, something you could have
actually asked operators about rather than making up conclusons in your
head.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen r...@e-gerbil.net   http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)



fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/22/how-video-is-changing-the-internet/

Does the FTC's question 106 hurt paid peering or not?  88 comments.
Makes real interesting reading, I must say.

srs



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Richard Bennett

Yes, it's a good old-fashioned Usenet-style flame-fest. Sort of.

It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since 
nobody has any facts.


RB

Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/22/how-video-is-changing-the-internet/

Does the FTC's question 106 hurt paid peering or not?  88 comments.
Makes real interesting reading, I must say.

srs

  


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC




Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Niels Bakker

* rich...@bennett.com (Richard Bennett) [Wed 25 Nov 2009, 05:56 CET]:
It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since 
nobody has any facts.


You're projecting.


-- Niels.



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Randy Bush
 It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since 
 nobody has any facts.

not really.  it's just that those with the facts have no reason to blab
them and reasons not to do so.

randy



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Richard Bennett
   I haven't found a good source who knows what's going on outside his own
   network.
   Randy Bush wrote:

It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since
nobody has any facts.


not really.  it's just that those with the facts have no reason to blab
them and reasons not to do so.

randy


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Paul Wall
On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett rich...@bennett.com wrote:
 It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since
 nobody has any facts.

Indeed you can.  This is one of things where the people with the hard
facts aren't talking due to NDA, regard for their pride, or both.  In
the absence of solid data, most journalists (and I use the term
loosely) take the high road, writing on only what they know about and
can back up with fact.  It is unfortunate that you approach this
differently, attempting to pass off Bill Norton's blog, itself very
flawed and comprised of error upon error which he simply refuses to
acknowledge or correct, as the new gospel.

You write that the shift of an enormous amount of Internet traffic
from transit to paid peering is new, that’s what the data in the Arbor
Networks study shows. Nowhere in the Arbor study is there any
analysis of where money is passing hands, or any settlement-based vs.
settlement-free interconnection arrangement.  The report is a
scientific one based upon aggregated netflow/sflow data, which doesn't
take layers 8 and above into account.

Also suspiciously absent is any disclosure of employer affiliations
and biases.  You write that [you're] opposed to the
anti-discrimination rule that the FCC is considering.  What you
fail to mention is that you work for the ITIF, a Washington think-tank
allegedly funded by big cable.  Is it really any surprise that you
want to preserve this revenue stream?

Likewise, Norton neglects to mention that he works for NuMetra, a
company going around to content and broadband operators trying to
pitch a some black box which will enforce last-mile QoS and
automatically pay the friendly local Internet monopoly/duopoly in
settlement fees *on top* of your regular transit costs.  Of course
he wants Uncle Sam to back off; that's how his employer benefits.  It
is also important to consider Mr. Norton's role in Equinix, where he
worked in MARKETING, far distanced from the establishment of actual
peering agreements.  The real co-founders were Jay Adelson and Al Avery.

It is sad to see that Mr. Norton, once a valued member of the
community, so blatantly favoring the green stuff over fact-checking
and journalistic integrity.  One can only hope Om Malik will carry out
better due diligence in the future when hiring industry experts to
write for him.

Drive Slow,
Paul Wall



Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Richard Bennett
   Speculation about how the money flows is a worthwhile activity.
   Paul Wall wrote:

On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett [1]rich...@bennett.com wrote:

It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since
nobody has any facts.

Indeed you can.  This is one of things where the people with the hard
facts aren't talking due to NDA, regard for their pride, or both.  In
the absence of solid data, most journalists (and I use the term
loosely) take the high road, writing on only what they know about and
can back up with fact.  It is unfortunate that you approach this
differently, attempting to pass off Bill Norton's blog, itself very
flawed and comprised of error upon error which he simply refuses to
acknowledge or correct, as the new gospel.

You write that the shift of an enormous amount of Internet traffic
from transit to paid peering is new, that's what the data in the Arbor
Networks study shows. Nowhere in the Arbor study is there any
analysis of where money is passing hands, or any settlement-based vs.
settlement-free interconnection arrangement.  The report is a
scientific one based upon aggregated netflow/sflow data, which doesn't
take layers 8 and above into account.

Also suspiciously absent is any disclosure of employer affiliations
and biases.  You write that [you're] opposed to the
anti-discrimination rule that the FCC is considering.  What you
fail to mention is that you work for the ITIF, a Washington think-tank
allegedly funded by big cable.  Is it really any surprise that you
want to preserve this revenue stream?

Likewise, Norton neglects to mention that he works for NuMetra, a
company going around to content and broadband operators trying to
pitch a some black box which will enforce last-mile QoS and
automatically pay the friendly local Internet monopoly/duopoly in
settlement fees *on top* of your regular transit costs.  Of course
he wants Uncle Sam to back off; that's how his employer benefits.  It
is also important to consider Mr. Norton's role in Equinix, where he
worked in MARKETING, far distanced from the establishment of actual
peering agreements.  The real co-founders were Jay Adelson and Al Avery.

It is sad to see that Mr. Norton, once a valued member of the
community, so blatantly favoring the green stuff over fact-checking
and journalistic integrity.  One can only hope Om Malik will carry out
better due diligence in the future when hiring industry experts to
write for him.

Drive Slow,
Paul Wall

--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC

References

   1. mailto:rich...@bennett.com


Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread Richard Bennett
Of course, the FCC/FTC could always get involved and mandate full 
disclosure and peering neutrality.


That might be fun.

RB

Richard Bennett wrote:

   Speculation about how the money flows is a worthwhile activity.
   Paul Wall wrote:

On 11/25/09, Richard Bennett [1]rich...@bennett.com wrote:

It turns out you can say any damn thing you want about peering since
nobody has any facts.

Indeed you can.  This is one of things where the people with the hard
facts aren't talking due to NDA, regard for their pride, or both.  In
the absence of solid data, most journalists (and I use the term
loosely) take the high road, writing on only what they know about and
can back up with fact.  It is unfortunate that you approach this
differently, attempting to pass off Bill Norton's blog, itself very
flawed and comprised of error upon error which he simply refuses to
acknowledge or correct, as the new gospel.

You write that the shift of an enormous amount of Internet traffic
from transit to paid peering is new, that's what the data in the Arbor
Networks study shows. Nowhere in the Arbor study is there any
analysis of where money is passing hands, or any settlement-based vs.
settlement-free interconnection arrangement.  The report is a
scientific one based upon aggregated netflow/sflow data, which doesn't
take layers 8 and above into account.

Also suspiciously absent is any disclosure of employer affiliations
and biases.  You write that [you're] opposed to the
anti-discrimination rule that the FCC is considering.  What you
fail to mention is that you work for the ITIF, a Washington think-tank
allegedly funded by big cable.  Is it really any surprise that you
want to preserve this revenue stream?

Likewise, Norton neglects to mention that he works for NuMetra, a
company going around to content and broadband operators trying to
pitch a some black box which will enforce last-mile QoS and
automatically pay the friendly local Internet monopoly/duopoly in
settlement fees *on top* of your regular transit costs.  Of course
he wants Uncle Sam to back off; that's how his employer benefits.  It
is also important to consider Mr. Norton's role in Equinix, where he
worked in MARKETING, far distanced from the establishment of actual
peering agreements.  The real co-founders were Jay Adelson and Al Avery.

It is sad to see that Mr. Norton, once a valued member of the
community, so blatantly favoring the green stuff over fact-checking
and journalistic integrity.  One can only hope Om Malik will carry out
better due diligence in the future when hiring industry experts to
write for him.

Drive Slow,
Paul Wall

--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC

References

   1. mailto:rich...@bennett.com
  


--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC




Re: fight club :) richard bennett vs various nanogers, on paid peering

2009-11-24 Thread bmanning

 and in the absence of source routing, why would I care what happens
 past the first hop?  to the extent I can know, document, and prove
 my internal network and its connectivity to its peers, that becomes
 the item of value,  the reputation of the network and its treatment 
 of its peers, clients and providers.

 and the funny thing about reputation.  its so hard to build a good 
 one and so easy to lose.  the second  odd thing about reputation, 
 its nearly impossible to quantify.

--bill
(pre-dating norton and woodcock in the peering game)
 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 10:00:52PM -0800, Richard Bennett wrote:
I haven't found a good source who knows what's going on outside his own
network.
Randy Bush wrote:
 
 not really.  it's just that those with the facts have no reason to blab
 them and reasons not to do so.
 
 randy
 
 --
 Richard Bennett