Paid Peering

Definition: Paid Peering is the business relationship whereby companies (Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), Large Scale Network Savvy Content Providers) reciprocally provide access to each others’ customers, but with some form of compensation or settlement fee.

The picture of Paid Peering is identical to that of regular (settlement-free) Peering except that there is something of value exchanged besides traffic and routes. With paid peering, one side extracts additional concessions in the form of a metered rate, or whereby one side pays for the transport for the other, or one side has to pay for transport and colocation, etc.