Hey NANOG!
I work at a datacenter in southern Colorado that is the upstream bandwidth
provider for several regional ISPs. We have been investigating our
ever-growing bandwidth usage and have found that out of transits
(Level3,Cogent,HE) that Netflix always seems to come in via Hurricane
Electric. (We move ~1.4gbps to Netflix, and are thus not a candidate for
peering. And they have no POP close.)
I tested this by advertising a /24 across all providers, then selectively
removed the advertisement to certain carriers to see where the bandwidth
goes. In order, it appears that if there is a HE route, Netflix uses it,
period. If there isn't, it prefers Level3, and Cogent comes last.
Since Netflix is a big hunk of our bandwidth (and obviously makes our
customers happy), we are included to buy some more HE. However, if Netflix
decides that they want to randomly switch to, say, Cogent, we may be under
a year-long bandwidth contract that isn't particularly valuable anymore.
With all of that, I am interested in finding out of any knowledge about
Netflix transit preferences, be it inside information, anecdotal, or
otherwise. I did email peering@ but haven't heard back, thus the public
question.
I work at a datacenter in southern Colorado that is the upstream bandwidth
provider for several regional ISPs. We have been investigating our
ever-growing bandwidth usage and have found that out of transits
(Level3,Cogent,HE) that Netflix always seems to come in via Hurricane
Electric. (We move ~1.4gbps to Netflix, and are thus not a candidate for
peering. And they have no POP close.)
Your statement about peering makes no sense. You are trying to engineer where their traffic comes and yet you refuse to have a direct connection which would give you full control? Weird.......
I tested this by advertising a /24 across all providers, then selectively
removed the advertisement to certain carriers to see where the bandwidth
goes. In order, it appears that if there is a HE route, Netflix uses it,
period. If there isn't, it prefers Level3, and Cogent comes last.
Completely unsurprising.
Since Netflix is a big hunk of our bandwidth (and obviously makes our
customers happy), we are included to buy some more HE. However, if Netflix
decides that they want to randomly switch to, say, Cogent, we may be under
a year-long bandwidth contract that isn't particularly valuable anymore.
With all of that, I am interested in finding out of any knowledge about
Netflix transit preferences, be it inside information, anecdotal, or
otherwise. I did email peering@ but haven't heard back, thus the public
question.
Why don't you ask Netflix?
And why not ask them for kit to put on-net? <Netflix;
Hey Patrick,
Thanks for your prompt response. Yes, we are trying to determine where/how
we receive it ... not necessarily influence it, as there isn't so much we
can do there as Netflix' egress policy is theirs and theirs alone
(interestingly, nobody has communities to influence Netflix' AS2906
traffic). We cannot peer directly with Netflix as their openconnect
statement requires 2gbps minimum, and mentions elsewhere that the like 5+.
We aren't at 2gbps yet, and we are nowhere near one of their POPs -- it is
way cheaper to buy 2-3gbps of cheap transit than it is to buy 2-3gbps of
transport from Denver to LA.
As mentioned, my notes to peering@netflix.com have gone unanswered for the
holidays (not unexpected), so I thought I'd ping the hive mind for some
info in the meantime.
Ah, I misunderstood. Mea Culpa. I thought you were saying since they only had 1.4 Gbps to you, you wouldn't peer with them. Silly of me.
The 2 Gbps is only for PNI, but yeah, I can see how paying to get to LA or Denver may be expensive. Although once you did, you could peer with a lot more than just Netflix. On the other hand, how much is it to get to Atlanta? Looks relatively close (miles-wise, don't know fiber routes in Tennessee).
Anyway, while their egress decisions are theirs (as is true of everyone), they probably will be happy to discuss with you - once the holidays are over.
More silliness was pointed out to me. I was looking at Jeff Kell's from: address and looked up UTC.edu to get your location, forgetting you mentioned Colorado in your original post.
I'm going to sign off and enjoy the holidays since I clearly am not doing anyone any good here.
I'M they would be more then willing to work with you on the open connect
appliance, specifically if you offered to pay for the hardware which I'M
sure would come in a lot cheaper then transport/transit over 12 months.
Carlos Alcantar
Race Communications / Race Team Member
1325 Howard Ave. #604, Burlingame, CA. 94010
Phone: +1 415 376 3314 / carlos@race.com / http://www.race.com
Steve,
Yep, we are a member of the RMIX already incidentally, and we have an email
in to the maintainer, CoreSite, to see if they can talk to Netflix about
perhaps setting up shop in Denver. Or even about linking the Denver
exchange to the LA or NY exchanges? I'm certain that a LOT of the west
would really benefit from having Netflix in Denver. We'll see!
Hurricane electric has a very open peering policy , can peer with them at
any major Equinix with pretty much no push or pull requirements , which is
why Netflix prefers them cause it costs them almost nothing , why pay
hurricane for transit when most of there connectivity can be accessed by
peer routes pretty much for free through Equinix exchange or any2...