

The key problem at peak hour is however the peering capacity: it represents the size of the doors between two networks. Some ISPs have been criticized for implementing bandwidth throttling to intentionally slow down a user's internet service at various points on the network. Each Tier 1 ISP has a peering policy that defines how IP Traffic exchanges are created and guidelines for managing peer traffic. The shared common gateways are choke points that contribute to the Internet Rush Hour. This is a disadvantage for the lower tier ISPs due to the amount of traffic hops and shared common gateways to Tier 1 ISPs. Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs are customers of the Tier 1 ISPs and rely on the Tier 1 ISPs to route their traffic across the Internet. These peering agreements between Tier 1 ISPs have no overt settlements, meaning there is no money exchanged for the right to pass traffic between Tier 1 peers. The back bone of the Internet is connected through Tier 1 ISPs that peer with other Tier 1 ISPs in a transit-free network. The Tier 1 ISPs own the infrastructure, which includes routers, switches and fiber optic footprints.

Relationship between the various tiers on Internet providersĮnd users connect to the Internet through Internet service providers (ISPs). WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS JWorld Regions The table below shows the big picture of world internet usage versus the population. The increase in Internet users and increase in access bandwidth is a contributing factor to the Internet Rush Hour. Internet access has also changed during this time frame from 56kbit/s dial-up to high-speed bandwidth access at 100Mbit/s or higher. Internet use has surged with the introduction of mobile devices and tablet computing. Global Internet usage has increased significantly across the world from 12,881,000 hosts in 1998 to 908,585,739 hosts in 2012.
