untangling_the_web

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Colosource Internet eXchange Points
Exchange Point Information
http://www.colosource.com/ix.asp
http://www.ep.net/ep-main.html
Internet Exchanges are invaluable sources of information about how major networks
are connected to each other all over the world. Often IX websites will include
information about peering arrangements. Peering is the "arrangement of traffic
exchange between Internet service providers (ISPs). Larger ISPs with their own
backbone networks agree to allow traffic from other large ISPs in exchange for traffic
on their backbones. They also exchange traffic with smaller ISPs so that they can
reach regional end points. Essentially, this is how a number of individual network
owners put the Internet together."159
In addition to IXs, Internet backbones, which are central networks that connect
other networks together, are high-interest segments of the Internet. Some of the best
known are Worldcom/UUNET, Owest and KPNOwest in Europe, Genuity, Sprint,
AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Savvis, GlobalOne, BELNET, Telia, and Teleglobe.
Internet Backbone Networks
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas/ispmaps.html
Russ Haynal's Major Internet Backbones
Boardwatch's Internet Backbone Maps
http://www.navigators.com/isp.html
http://www.nthelp.com/maps.htm
BWM's Links to Network Maps
http://www.bandwidthmarket.com/componentloption.com weblinks/catid,74/ltemid,4/
8T Infonet's Network Maps
http://www.bt.infonet.com/services/internet/network maps.asp
What do backbone maps typically look like? Here is the Ipv6 backbone map for the
National Education and Research Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa ­
RNP), "the Brazilian infrastructure of advanced network for collaboration and
communication in the fields of teaching and research.,,16o The interactive web page
not only displays the topology seen here, but also includes links with details about
the connectivity.
159 "Peering," Whatis.com, (14 November 2006).
160 RNP Backbone Map, < http://www.rnp.br/en/backbone/index.php> (14 November 2006).
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