NAP Manager Solicitation

A NAP manager should be appointed to each NAP with duties that include the following:

•  Establish and maintain the specified NAP for connecting to vBNS and other appropriate networks.

•  Establish policies and fees for providers that want to connect to the NAP.

•  Propose NAP locations subject to the given general geographic locations.

•  Propose and establish procedures to work with personnel from other NAP managers (if any), the Route Arbiter, the vBNS provider, and regional and other attached networks, to resolve problems and to support end-to-end connectivity and quality of service for network users.

•  Develop reliability and security standards for the NAPs and procedures to ensure that these standards are met.

•  Specify and provide appropriate NAP accounting and statistics gathering and reporting capabilities.

•  Specify appropriate access procedures to the NAP for authorized personnel of connecting networks and ensure that these procedures are carried out.

At the NAP

The current physical configuration of today's NAPs is a mixture of FDDI/ATM switches with different access methods, ranging from DS3 for dedicated and FR/ATM/SMDS for switched. Figure 1-3 shows a possible configuration, based on some contemporary NAPs. The routers could be managed either by the NSP or the NAP manager. Different configurations, fees, and policies are set by the NAP manager. Connections from different LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) are provided by Inter eXchange Carriers (IXC).

Figure 1-3  Typical NAP physical infrastructure.

Federal Internet eXchange (FIX)

Due to the decommissioning of the NSFNET backbone, federal regional networks faced the problem of transitioning to the new infrastructure where they have to be connected to new NSPs. The Federal Networking Council (FNC) Engineering and Planning Group (FEPG) was responsible for making a recommendation on how to transition to the new NAP-NSP operational environment with minimal disruption to users, specifically in federal agency communications with the U.S. academic and research communities.

Existing Federal Internet eXchanges (FIX West and FIX East) were to be connected to the major NSPs (MCInet, Sprintlink, ANS). The FIX West backbone formerly was maintained at NASA Ames. Now it is connected to the major NSPs, and route servers were installed to peer with the federal agencies. The FIX East backbone formerly was maintained at SURA (College Park, MD). Now it is connected to the major NSPs and is also bridged to the MAE-East facility (Tyson's Corner, VA) of MFS.

Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX)

The CIX (pronounced Kix) is a nonprofit trade association of Public Data Internetwork Service Providers. The association promotes and encourages the development of the public data communications internetworking services industry in both national and international markets. The CIX provides a neutral forum to exchange ideas, information, and experimental projects among suppliers of internetworking services. Some benefits CIX provides its members include:

•  A neutral forum to develop consensus positions on legislative and policy issues.

•  A fundamental agreement for all CIX members to interconnect with one another. No restriction exists on the type of traffic that can be routed between member networks.

•  No "settlements" nor any traffic-based charges between CIX member networks.

•  Access to all CIX member networks, greatly increasing the correspondents, files, databases, and information services available to them. Users gain a global reach in networking, increasing the value of their network connection.

With increasing ISP connectivity to NAPs, the CIX becomes essential in the coordination of legislative issues between members. In fact, the role of the CIX for physical connectivity is not as important as its role in coordination between parties. With the existence of a number of other high bandwidth connection points such as the NAPs, the CIX plays a minor role in the connectivity game. ISPs who still rely on the CIX as their only physical connection to the Internet are still way behind.

On July 13, 1994, the CIX board voted to block traffic from ISPs who are not CIX members. CIX membership costs approximately $7,500 annually.

Significance of the NAPs for Routing

Although NAP connectivity is primarily something ISPs have to worry about, the level of redundancy and diversity of NAP connections affects traffic patterns and trajectories in the whole Internet. As such, the delays or speed of access caused by ISPs' interconnectivity affect the performance of everyone's Internet access. As you will see in the rest of this book, speed of access to the NAPs and the distance an ISP or a customer is from the NAP affects routing behaviors and traffic trajectories.