An important requirement for establishing any peering link is to ensure that there is suitable router hardware available.

For an organisation embarking on establishing their first Internet connection, a router will be required. The Peering Toolbox can't provide an exhaustive summary of all the options and combinations available but the key points to note are as follows:

• the router needs to have internal and external interfaces to match the physical media in use.
• the router needs to be able to handle the throughput of the link being purchased, and leave sufficient CPU and memory capacity for future upgrades
• if the transit provider uses both IPv4 and IPv6 on their network, the router must be able to handle IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack operation)
• if BGP is going to be used, the router must be BGP capable, although it does not have to or need to carry the full BGP table (which is large and growing rapidly)

This router is normally dedicated only for peering connections, whether connecting to public peers at an IXP or private peers. If procuring a separate router is not a possibility, it is possible that an existing router could be used, so long as it meets the appropriate technical requirements for participating in a peering infrastructure (full support of BGP, sufficient controlplane memory and CPU capacity).

This router is normally dedicated only for peering connections, whether connecting to public peers at an IXP or private peers. If procuring a separate router is not a possibility, it is possible that an existing router could be used, so long as it meets the appropriate technical requirements for participating in a peering infrastructure (full support of BGP, sufficient controlplane memory and CPU capacity).

Back to "What I need to Peer" page