NET+ Cloud Services Peering Consolidated Into Internet2 Peer Exchange

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

By Jeff Bartig, Senior Interconnection Architect, and Chris Wilkinson, Internet2 Senior Director of Infrastructure Engineering and Architecture

Internet2 will soon consolidate all of its cloud peering into the Internet2 Peer Exchange (I2PX) service, moving remaining commercial peers from its Research & Education (R&E) IP network service into I2PX. The migration will occur during multiple change windows August 15-25, 2024.

It will include the following Internet2 NET+ peers:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
CrashPlan
Dropbox
ServiceNow
Zoom VoIP

Once the migration is complete, all peering for NET+ cloud services will be available through I2PX.

Internet2 has worked in recent years to significantly expand and augment peer capacity in I2PX. As a result, I2PX can provide NET+ peers with more interconnect points of presence and larger overall capacity compared to the commercial peering options of the R&E IP service.

Community Input Drives Service Changes

At the inception of the NET+ program, Internet2 made the strategic decision to maximize cloud peer performance by establishing the associated connections with Internet2’s R&E network. While that decision was prudent over a decade ago — when R&E IP and TR-CPS (the precursor to I2PX) services were on separate routers and backbones — numerous network evolutions have occurred since then. Now, both R&E IP and I2PX services run within a single core routing platform on the Internet2 network.

In 2019, the community’s Routed Services Futures Group recommended that Internet2 simplify its methodology for delivering both R&E IP and I2PX services. A key aspect of the proposed service change was consolidating all Internet2 cloud peering into I2PX and removing commercial peers from the R&E IP service.

The combination of Internet2’s network evolution and significant expansion of I2PX means it is the appropriate time to merge the R&E network NET+ peers into I2PX and remove them from the R&E IP service. This will result in a more mission-focused R&E IP service and provide uniform structure for the community’s peer exchange.

While this change will potentially impact a small number of community members currently not configured to utilize I2PX, both Internet2 staff and an external community review committee concluded that the benefits of proceeding with this change outweigh the disadvantages. As a result, we will proceed with implementing this change starting on August 15, 2024.

Questions and Additional Resources

If you have questions, please view the frequently asked questions below or contact networkdevelopment@internet2.edu.

Internet2 Network Services will also host a series of office hours to answer questions and assist network participants with inspecting routing and advising on BGP routing best practices for R&E networks.

Office Hours:

During separate maintenance windows, Internet2 will work with each of the cloud providers (i.e., AWS, CrashPlan, Dropbox, ServiceNow, Zoom VoIP) to reconfigure the peering between their networks and Internet2. Once the configuration change is complete, routes to the cloud provider that were previously in the R&E network routing table will then be in the I2PX routing table only. Internet2 network participants that have I2PX access and have it configured to prefer I2PX routes over commodity transit (ISP) routes should see traffic with the cloud provider using I2PX paths. If an Internet2 network participant does not use I2PX or doesn’t prefer I2PX routes, they will see any traffic with the cloud provider that was using the Internet2 R&E network reroute via other paths, likely via a commodity transit provider.
Internet2 network participants should confirm that their institution’s routes are being advertised to I2PX. If your institution is multi-homed to both R&E and commodity transit networks, you should verify that steps are being taken to prefer R&E routes over I2PX routes and to prefer I2PX routes and any local peering over commodity transit routes. Also, route advertisements to commodity transit providers need to be AS path prepended, signaling to I2PX peers that I2PX should be preferred over commodity transit routes.

NET+ Consolidation Review Committee:

David Farmer, Northern Lights GigaPoP
Andrew Gallo, CAAREN
Byron Hicks, LEARN
Richard Hicks, Link Oregon
Bill Owens, NYSERNet
David Sinn, Pacific Northwest Gigapop
Chris Wopat, WiscNet