[p2p-research] How peering is changing the shape of the Internet

[Matt Boggs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02topo.html?src=sch&pagewanted=all


Peering goes back to the earliest days of the Internet, when organizations
would directly connect their networks instead of paying yet another company
to route data traffic. Originally, the companies that owned the backbone of
the Internet shared traffic. In recent years, however, the practice has
increased to the point where some researchers who study the way global
networks are put together believe that peering is changing the fundamental
shape of the Internet, with serious consequences for its stability and
security. Others see the vast increase in traffic staying within a structure
that has remained essentially the same. 
What is clear is that today a significant portion of Internet traffic does
not flow through the backbone networks of giant Internet companies like AT&T
and Level 3. Instead, it has begun to cascade in torrents of data on the
edges of the network, as if a river in flood were carving new channels.