Over the past few months, I have conducted close to 50 interviews with network engineers, peering coordinators, internet exchange point operators and industry observers from more than 20 countries across the globe. Based on that, I wrote down some thoughts about internet interconnection for RIPE Labs.
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Today’s internet is made up of more than 48 000 networks, mostly operated by private actors. Together, they produce connectivity – a resource they all depend upon when doing business. In order to establish connectivity these competitors need to cooperate. Internet exchanges offer technical facilities for networks to “meet” and exchange traffic. I argue that internet exchanges have a specific disposition to act as organisers that facilitate the cooperation. This disposition and their organisational practices are analysed through the lens of concepts that are rooted in the economics of convention.
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When Netflix and Comcast recently announced that the video service's data will be poured into the Comcast network more directly, interconnection agreements were put in the spotlight as economic practices. However, economic action happens in a social context. The concept of economics of convention can help us see the social in internet interconnection.
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