Peering Agreement
A Peering Agreement is usually a documentation trail that indicates how two network operators are going to interconnect. They are required when operators have Selective or Restricted peering policies.
The documentation trail can take several forms, ranging from email exchanges all the way to a formal contract between the two entities.
A peering agreement will usually contain the following information:
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The AS numbers to be used by each party
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The AS numbers of customers that are to be transited by each party (if applicable)
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IP address space (IPv4 and/or IPv6) to be announced by each party (and by each party's customers as applicable)
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Subnets of the IP address space to be announced by each party (acceptable ranges, used for traffic engineering)
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The location of the physical interconnect
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The bandwidth/capacity of the interconnect
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Any specific BGP options (password to protect the session, use of MEDs, use of BGP communities,…)
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Administrative contact for each party
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Technical contact for each party
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Network Operations Centre (24×7) contact for each party
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What happens in case of network problems (escalation path) or disputes
Much of this is already contained in a well documented PeeringDB entry, but many operators still request a direct agreement so that there is supporting documentation indicating how the two parties will interact with each other.