CENIC Settlement-Free Interconnection (SFI) Policy

CENIC Settlement-Free Peering Policy

CENIC operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity computer network with more than 8,000 miles of optical fiber. The network serves over 20 million users across California, including the vast majority of K-20 students together with educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public-serving institutions.

CENIC may, at its sole discretion, interconnect its IP network with other Internet backbone and content providers on a settlement-free basis when such interconnection provides tangible benefits to CENIC and its customers.

For purposes of this SFI policy statement:

• an Internet Network is defined as a single Autonomous System (“ASN”) operated by or on-behalf of a regional or local governmental entity
• an SFI-Peer is defined as a potential applicant for SFI or an IP network with an existing SFI relationship with CENIC

IPv4/v6 Settlement-Free Interconnection Requirements for CENIC AS2152

1. Interconnection bandwidth must be at least 10GE at each interconnection point.
2. SFI-Peer must utilize BGP to govern the exchange of traffic at interconnection points.
   
3. A network (ASN) that is a customer of a CENIC network for any dedicated IP services may not simultaneously be a settlement-free network peer.
   
4. Both parties must establish mutually agreeable routing practices and interconnect locations, such that each party bears a roughly equal share of network cost. SFI-Peer must provide and maintain technical contact information for capacity planning and provisioning and administrative contacts for all legal notices. SFI-Peer must agree to participate in joint capacity reviews at mutually agreed upon pre-set intervals and work towards timely augments as identified. CENIC requires such intervals to be no more frequent than quarterly.
   
5. SFI-Peer must have a professionally managed 24x7x365 NOC, which maintains responsibility to repair or otherwise remedy any problems within a reasonable timeframe. SFI-Peer must also agree to actively cooperate to resolve security incidents, denial of service attacks, and other operational problems.
   
6. SFI-Peer is expected to provide a 48-hour notice for scheduled maintenance activities.
   
7. SFI-Peer must establish and maintain traffic exchange links of a sufficient robustness, aggregate capacity, and geographic dispersion to facilitate mutually acceptable performance across the interconnection links.
   
8. SFI-Peer must use the same peering AS at each interconnection point and must announce a consistent set of routes at each point unless otherwise mutually agreed in writing by both parties.
   
9. SFI-Peer must filter route announcements from its customers by prefix or using RPKI when applicable.
   
10. SFI-Peer’s traffic to/from the CENIC network must be on-net only. No transit or third party routes are to be announced; all routes exchanged must be SFI-Peer's and SFI-Peer's customers' routes. Each Internet Network shall announce only their internal routes and the routes of their IP transit customers. No other routes are permitted and may be filtered if detected.
    
11. Neither party shall abuse the peering relationship by any of the non-exhaustive list of actions such as: pointing a default route at the other or otherwise forwarding traffic for destinations not explicitly advertised, resetting next-hop, selling or giving next-hop to others. SFI-Peer shall not offer or sell any IP transit services where the sole paths are to or through AS2152.
    

Ongoing SFI Reviews with CENIC AS2152

Adhering to the SFI network peering policies set forth herein is not a guarantee that an SFI network peering relationship with CENIC will be established. CENIC shall evaluate a number of business factors and reserves the right not to enter into an SFI network peering agreement with an otherwise qualified SFI-Peer. Existing SFI network peers of CENIC will have their status reviewed periodically to ensure that joint capacity planning intervals are sufficient for growth, contacts are refreshed for operational purposes, and all criteria continue to be met. CENIC reserves the right to terminate SFI network peering, upon a mutually agreed upon notice period, with peers who do not meet the criteria described above. Periodic review of the policies contained herein will be conducted to ensure that the criteria and eligibility requirements remain consistent with CENIC’s business needs. CENIC may modify this SFI policy statement at any time without advance notice to SFI network peers.