Thread: Full vs partial transit - cost / explain !

Put simply, if you're unsure - you're best to go static routed, most people will do statically routed transit cheaper than BGP presented full transit.

you'd need to have an ASN, Your own PI/Similar space, Your own routers, Sufficient justification for the ASN/PI. If people are pushing X00mbit/s they'll usually do peering themselves.

Going BGP isn't the cheap way of doing it, negotiate with who is selling the racks and try to get a nice price on statically routed transit, it's the cheapest way of doing it

Yes, partial transit will consist of your provider's peering routes (often their own plus routes bought in from another tier 2). Since your upstream provider isn't paying transit rates they will often offer you the partial transit at very low cost.

You will need a BGP router and at least 1 full transit provider to take advantage of this unless you only want to be visible to half of the internet! As BGP will by default prefer the shortest path (in terms of AS hops), your partial feed will often be used over your more expensive full transit thus saving you a little money and (in theory) improving your network + latency to your users.

If you're asking these questions, you probably won't find this worth the hassle - there are plenty of companies out there who will sell you IP transit for peanuts if your usage is large enough to justify the above setup. Alternatively you could look for a consultant to help you set up your AS.

HTH, good luck .

Partial is usually just peering traffic so it's generally free to the ISP. (not counting running costs of course)

Full traffic is just that and you will need at least some of this.

Some ISP's will sell you a mix of partial/full traffic. This can be quite nice if the partial transit is well connected and covers a large chunk of your demographic. (eg game-server traffic)

So instead of paying 10mbit at full rate you might pay 8mbit at partial rates and 2mbit for the full fat stuff.

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