Peering, Transit, and Internet Exchange Points

You now understand how BGP sessions work and how paths are selected. But who is Telnyx exchanging routes with, and why? The business and technical relationships between networks — transit, peering, and internet exchange points — directly shape how voice traffic flows across the internet. For a NOC engineer, understanding these relationships explains why some calls have pristine quality while others suffer from latency and jitter.

Transit vs Peering

There are two fundamental ways networks exchange traffic:

Transit

A paid relationship where one network (the customer) pays another (the provider) for access to the entire internet.

┌──────────────┐    $$$     ┌──────────────┐
│   Telnyx     │ ────────► │   Cogent     │
│   AS46887    │  transit   │   AS174      │
│              │◄────────  │ (provides    │
│  "customer"  │  full      │  full table) │
└──────────────┘  routes    └──────────────┘

What you get with transit:

A full routing table (~950K IPv4 prefixes) — you can reach anywhere
Your routes announced to the transit provider's entire customer and peer base
You pay monthly based on bandwidth commitment (e.g., 10Gbps @ $X/Mbps)

Peering

A relationship where two networks directly exchange traffic destined for each other's networks (and their customers). Usually free (settlement-free).

┌──────────────┐   free    ┌──────────────┐
│   Telnyx     │ ◄───────► │  Cloudflare  │
│   AS46887    │  peering   │   AS13335    │
│              │  (direct)  │              │
└──────────────┘           └──────────────┘

What you get with peering:

Routes only to the peer's network and their customers — NOT the whole internet
Direct path between the two networks — lower latency, fewer hops
No monthly payment (settlement-free) or reduced cost

Comparison Table

Aspect	Transit	Peering
Cost	Paid ($$)	Usually free
Routes received	Full internet table	Only peer's routes
Routes sent	Your routes + customers	Your routes + customers
Relationship	Provider ↔ Customer	Peer ↔ Peer

🔒 Full Course Content Available

This is a preview of the Telephony Mastery Course. The complete lesson includes:

✅ Detailed technical explanations
✅ Advanced configuration examples
✅ Hands-on lab exercises
✅ Real-world troubleshooting scenarios
✅ Practice quizzes and assessments

🚀 Unlock Full Course Access

Preview shows approximately 25% of the full lesson content.