What is Peering?

The term Peering can be defined as a process in which two internet network connects and exchange traffic. It is a kind of an arrangement of traffic exchange amid Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Larger ISPs with their own backbone network agree to permit traffic from other large ISPs in exchange for traffic on their backbones. This arrangement also exchanges traffic with smaller ISPs, so that they can reach to regional end point. In this manner, a number of individual network owners put the internet together.

Peering is different from transit, the most convenient way of connecting to the internet, in which an end user or network operator pays another, usually larger, network operator to carry all their traffic for them. It requires the exchange and updating of router information among the peered ISPs, typically through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).