What is peering?

Peering is the direct exchange of traffic between two autonomous networks, in which each side accepts traffic destined for itself and its own customers, usually without a paid transit provider in between. The two networks set up a BGP session and advertise their prefixes to one another, so packets take the shortest possible path, often within a single city or country. Peering is one of the two fundamental ways a network connects to the rest of the internet, alongside IP transit.

Public and private peering

Public peering happens on the shared layer-2 fabric of an internet exchange point (IXP), where many operators connect to the same fabric and exchange traffic over common ports. Private peering (PNI, Private Network Interconnect) is a dedicated point-to-point link between two networks. It is typically used when the volume of traffic between them is large enough to justify a separate port independent of the IXP.

• Public peering: shared IXP fabric, easy to establish many sessions, lower cost of entry.
• Private peering (PNI): a dedicated port or link, more capacity and control for heavy traffic.
• Multilateral peering: a single session to a route server gives connectivity to dozens of networks at once.
• Bilateral peering: a separate BGP session with a specific partner and full control over policy.

The settlement-free model and when peering is paid

Most peering is settlement-free, meaning neither party pays the other for the exchanged traffic, because both gain comparable value from the link. You only cover the cost of the IXP port, any membership fee and the backhaul circuit to the exchange. When the benefit is clearly asymmetric, for example when a small network wants to pull a lot of traffic from a large content provider, you may see paid peering, where the party with the greater benefit pays a fee. Unlike transit, peering is not transitive: a peering partner gives you reach to its network and its customers only, not to the whole internet.

Why operators peer

For an operator, peering gives concrete, measurable benefits. Domestic and regional traffic stays close to its source instead of detouring through distant hubs in Western Europe. That lowers latency and improves the quality of latency-sensitive services such as gaming, VoIP and video conferencing. Every gigabit moved onto peering is a gigabit you do not have to buy as paid transit, so peering directly reduces connectivity bills. Each peering session is also another independent path that improves the network's resilience to failures.

Peering with AS202520 SkyPass

AS202520 SkyPass runs an open peering policy and is present at Polish internet exchanges including THINX, TPIX and WRIX. You can set up a session through the IXP route servers for broad multilateral reach, or directly as private peering with key partners. For operators without their own port in Warsaw or Wrocław, we offer remote access to the exchanges through our infrastructure, so they can peer locally without building their own data-center presence.