Every operator needs to decide that their “Peering Policy” is.

This section looks at what is meant by “Peering Policy”, and how an operator goes about deciding what their policy should be.

The three types of peering policy will be looked at in turn:

• Open Peering
• Selective Peering
• Restrictive Peering

Open Peering is where a Network Operator publicly states that they will peer with all parties who approach them for peering. This is commonly found at Internet Exchange Points where the Network Operator participates via the IXP's Route Server.

What this means is that the Network Operator does not have any relationship with any of their peers. They simply connect to the IXP's Route Server, peer with that device, and accept all routes it sends from all parties participating. Likewise, the routes originated by the Network Operator are distributed to all participants at the Route Server.

The downside of this is that the Network Operator has no control over who they peer with. Hence the tag of “Open Peering” meaning that they are willing to peer with anyone.

The typical operator who might have an open peering policy could include:

• Access Providers
• Content Providers
• Content Distribution Networks
• Infrastructure operators (eg Root, ccTLD, gTLD name servers)

Note that many Content Providers and Content Distribution Networks prefer to have a technical/operational relationship with the Network Operator they are peeing with.

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