caribnog research team stephen lee; andre edwards; steve

A Study of Caribbean Interconnection &Traffic Exchange

LAC INTERNET TRAFFIC ISSUES

www.caribnog.org

CaribNOG Research TeamStephen Lee; Andre Edwards; Steve Spence; Bevil Wooding

BACKGROUND

Understanding the

Caribbean Context

REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY

A Tale of Cable, Communities,

Competition and Commerce

Caribbean Cable Connectivity Maps

ARCOS-1 – 960 GB /s 24 Landings


FIBRALINK – 320 GB /s 4 Landings


CFX -1 – 150 GB /s 3 Landings


GCN - 2.1 TB /s 15 Landings


ECFS - 1.34 TB /s 14 Landings


MAYA 1 – 20 GB /s 7 Landings


AMERICAS 2 - 2.5 GB /s 9 Landings


SG-CS - 3 Landings


TC-CS – 1.9 TB /s 3 Landings


PANAM – 5 GB /s 8 Landings


SAM 1 - 1.2 TB /s 13 Landings

IMPLICATIONS• Adequate coverage for immediate demand

– 17 active fiber systems

– Aggregate capacity of 12.4 Gbps

• Multiple cable systems and operators– Operator and service choice

– Redundant routes

• Demand continues to grow; opportunities still exist– Additional capacity

– New service models

ISSUES: Domestic Connectivity

• Overall, cost of connectivity is high– Some DSL users pay the same price for 256

Kbps that US / EU users pay for 10+ Mbps

• Low QoS even on links rated at high speeds– Low latency but slow speeds

– High levels of contention and congestion

– Sub-optimal engineering

• Service providers not able to resolve L2 and L3 issues

PEERING AND TRANSIT

Connecting the Caribbean

- a Question of Packets or Rackets?

TRANSIT RELATIONSHIPS

• Buy International Transit Direct or Via Dominant Local Provider

• Transit is typically to Miami

– Nap of the Americas (NOTA) is the

Caribbean’s default ‘regional’ IXP

• Insignificant levels of inter-island transit

PEERING RELATIONSHIPS• Four regional Internet Exchange Points

– Haiti, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Curacao

• Membership: small ISPs and development agencies• Unsuccessful operational models

• No peering within region by major ISPs– Traffic exchanged between major ISPs in Miami and

New York

– No direct peering (based on public data)

• IXP Development – Work In Progress – St. Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Grenada, BVI, St Vincent

PARTIAL CARIBBEAN PEERING MAP

COLUMBUS NETWORKS

AS23520

CWJ-1AS10292

COGENTAS174

SPRINTAS1239

TELIANETAS1299

CW-CAYMANAS6639

CWDOMAS11139

CWWI-AS

AS10278

ACT2000AS19246

CABLE AND WIRELESS

AS1273

TT-TSO1-LACNIC

AS5639

INFO-CHANNEL

AS22917

TRAFFIC PATH TESTS

Real Data…Real Issues

TESTING REGIME• Purpose

– Obtain empirical data concerning traffic routes

• Methodology– Traceroutes from Internet-connected PCs

• Between ISPs in same country• Between ISPs in different countries• Within single ISP network, one country• Within single ISP network across two countries

• Results– Path taken by data packets traversing region

TESTING REGIME

• ISP Networks Tested

– LIME; TSTT; Flow; Caribbean Cable Communications; ACT Online; iNet; Belize Telemedia

TSTT Trinidad to Flow Jamaica1 2 ms 5 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.22 145 ms 33 ms 41 ms 186-45-192-1.dynamic.tstt.net.tt [186.45.192.1]3 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms 201.238.123.46.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.123.46]4 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 201.238.77.22.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.77.22]5 29 ms 33 ms 34 ms 201.238.77.21.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.77.21]6 100 ms 110 ms 99 ms gige7-13.usa.nmi-edge05.columbus-networks.com

[63.245.68.81]7 119 ms 121 ms 111 ms xe-1-0-1.usa.nmi-teracore02.columbus-networks.com

[63.245.5.96]8 104 ms 117 ms 127 ms xe-3-1-0.usa.nam-core02.columbus-networks.com [63.245.5.71]9 121 ms 121 ms 134 ms 63.245.47.86

10 122 ms 124 ms 156 ms xe-1-1-0-h1-hfc01.flowja.com [72.252.25.177]11 * * * Request timed out.12 126 ms 145 ms 140 ms 505-h1-hfc02.flowja.com [72.252.25.193]

Flow Trinidad to TSTT (T’dad)1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.5.12 * * * Request timed out.3 57 ms 10 ms 8 ms 200.1.111.2414 32 ms 14 ms 10 ms 200.1.111.785 43 ms 81 ms 13 ms 200.1.111.636 77 ms 72 ms 71 ms so-0-3-0-2.usa.nmi-core02.columbus-networks.com [63.245.44.21]7 121 ms 62 ms 64 ms xe-0-1-0.usa.nmi-teracore01.columbus-networks.com

[63.245.5.92]8 74 ms 77 ms <1 ms tengige2-3.usa.nmi-edge05.columbus-networks.com [63.245.5.97]9 155 ms 148 ms 159 ms 63.245.68.82

10 150 ms <1 ms <1 ms 201.238.77.22.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.77.22]11 198 ms 160 ms 60 ms 201.238.123.37.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.123.37]12 178 ms 156 ms <1 ms 201.238.123.38.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.123.38]13 168 ms <1 ms <1 ms 186-45-197-175.dynamic.tstt.net.tt [186.45.197.175]

TRAFFIC PATH IMPLICATIONS

Reading the tea leaves

IMPLICATIONS• Inefficient and expensive traffic routes

• Caribbean ISPs pay exorbitant transit costs to US IXs– Costs passed on to consumers

– Providers offer reduced services to keep costs down

• Low speeds and latency problems on local loops

• Large ISPs own primary transit routes and have little incentive to peer within the region

– LIME and Flow dominate in traffic and infrastructure

• Transit model discriminates against development of regional content– Favors consumption of US content;

– ISPs argue that customers prefer international content

THE WAY FORWARD

Problems have Solutions

• Increased Stakeholder Awareness

– Governments; Providers; NGO Groups, etc

• Proliferation of Caribbean IXPs

– CTU / PCH / CANTO / CARICOM

• New Intra Regional Transit Models

– Increase Short Haul Transit route Options

• Regional Technical Community

– Networking, Capacity Building & Participation in International Fora

• Promote Development of Local (Regional) Content Industry

• More Informed Regulatory Frameworks

THE WAY FORWARD

Q&A

THANK YOU

www.caribnog.org

CaribNOG Research TeamStephen Lee; Andre Edwards; Steve Spence,

REFERENCESrobtex AS Analysis

http://www.robtex.com/as/

Greg’s Cable Maphttp://www.cablemap.info/

DNSstuff.comhttp://www.dnsstuff.com

ARIN Whois-RWShttp://whois.arin.net/ui

The Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA)http://www.caida.org/

PeeringDBhttps://www.peeringdb.com/

DrPeeringhttp://drpeering.net/

Caribbean - Telecoms Market Overview & Statistics – February 2010Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd., http://www.budde.com.au

http://www.robtex.com/as/

http://www.cablemap.info/

http://www.dnsstuff.com/

http://whois.arin.net/ui

http://www.caida.org/

https://www.peeringdb.com/

http://drpeering.net/

http://www.budde.com.au/

caribnog research team stephen lee; andre edwards; steve

Documents