A sample IP Provider's Network

(SprintLink)

SprintLink is Sprint’s IP service.  This section is an overview of basic IP and Sprint’s IP service.  For details, http://www.sprint.net/ has in-depth information on Sprint’s various IP policies (BGP4, DNS, etc.).

Access Nodes  -  SprintLink access nodes are grouped in 3’s – each  site has 2 sister sites (a triangle is formed).  When a customer orders a dedicate IP circuit, if capacity is unavailable at the nearest node, provisioning will wait 30 days for that node to become available (through attrition or build-out).  If after 30 days capacity is still unavailable, the customer will be backhauled to one of the sister sites automatically.  Their circuit will then stay there, and will not be moved back to the closest site, even if capacity becomes available.  However, if after 30 days all three access nodes are still full – then the customer has the option to pay for a longer backhaul, which would be the same as purchasing a private line in addition to the IP port.

Hot-Potato Routing  -  Sprint uses Hot-Potato routing, where for all packets not destined on their network – they attempt to dump it off as quickly as possible.  Qwest performs cold-potato routing, using the MED (multiexit discriminator) attribute in BGP4 (Border Gateway Protocol version 4) to find the route closest to the destination. 

DNS - Sprint provides free Primary DNS for up to 5 second-level domain names (i.e. customer.com).  Primary DNS for additional domain names (beyond the 5 free) is available at $50 MRC per domain name.  Note that this is a per customer offer (not per port or per order).

Sprint provides free Secondary DNS for up to 50 zones.  If a customer needs Secondary DNS provided for more than 50 zones, an SCA is required.