Revealing Utilization at Internet Interconnection Points

TL;DR

This paper discusses a method for measuring Internet interconnection utilization using IPFIX data, and analyzes five months of data from seven US ISPs, revealing significant spare capacity at interconnection points.

Contribution

It introduces a measurement approach for interconnection utilization and provides empirical analysis of extensive real-world data from multiple ISPs.

Findings

Many interconnects have significant spare capacity.

Spare capacity exists both across ISPs and within individual ISPs.

Aggregate utilization during peak periods is roughly 50%.

Abstract

Recent Internet interconnection disputes have sparked an in- creased interest in developing methods for gathering and collecting data about utilization at interconnection points. One mechanism, developed by DeepField Networks, allows Internet service providers (ISPs) to gather and aggregate utilization information using network flow statistics, standardized in the Internet Engineering Task Force as IPFIX. This report (1) provides an overview of the method that DeepField Networks is using to measure the utilization of various interconnection links between content providers and ISPs or links over which traffic between content and ISPs flow; and (2) surveys the findings from five months of Internet utilization data provided by seven participating ISPs---Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox, Mediacom, Midco, Suddenlink, and Time Warner Cable---whose access networks represent about 50% of all U.S. broadband subscribers. The dataset includes about 97% of the paid peering, settlement-free peering, and ISP-paid transit links of each of the participating ISPs. Initial analysis of the data---which comprises more than 1,000 link groups, representing the diverse and substitutable available routes---suggests that many interconnects have significant spare capacity, that this spare capacity exists both across ISPs in each region and in aggregate for any individual ISP, and that the aggregate utilization across interconnects interconnects is roughly 50% during peak periods.