Evaluating End-User Network Benefits of Peering with Path Latencies

Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) have been recently identified as critical components of the Internet's AS level infrastructure. Recent studies have characterized the importance of IXPs in Internet topology evolution studies but the network benefits brought about by the increased peering has not garnered much attention. In this work, we propose and implement a measurement framework to compare paths traversing an IXP hop with a set of valid alternate paths which isolate the IXP effects. Our framework enables identification of these alternate paths and then carries out an in-depth comparison of the IXP path with its available alternates. Using the popular route performance metric of end- to-end latency we observe that most paths through peering ASes at exchanges generally have a better alternate through transit providers of the peering ASes. Traditional overlay routes such as detour paths also outperform the default BGP path through an IXP. While economic benefits are the primary driving forces behind public peering we conclude that obtaining network benefits (in terms of path latencies) require due consideration by peering ASes to ensure better end-user experience.