Interconnection, Peering, and Settlements

Technology and business models share a common evolution within the Internet. To enable deployment of the technology within a service environment there is also the need to create a robust and stable business model. This tied destiny of technology and business factors is perhaps most apparent within the area of the interconnection of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Here there is both an interaction at a level of technology, in terms of routing signaling and traffic flows, and also an interaction of business models, in terms of a negotiation of benefit and cost in undertaking the interconnection. In this article we will examine this environment in some detail, looking closely at the interaction between the capabilities of the technical protocols, their translation into engineering deployment and the consequent business imperatives such environments create.