Balance Procedure

This procedure is used when customers’ ports on the MIX switches are virtually cut at lower speeds (virtual rate-limit-VRL); MIX runs monitoring tools on each router interface connected on the peering LAN.

Every month, the data generated by the monitoring system are processed through an algorithm that cuts off the first 10% of the peak values and:

a. if the bandwidth usage is less or equal to the VRL value, no action is made by the MIX; 

b. if the bandwidth usage is greater than the VRL value: 

  • after the first month, MIX sends a warning message by e-mail to the technical contacts;
  • after the second month, enduring the over-usage, MIX requires a balance and adapts the VRL value to the closest higher one (or to the port speed if there aren’t intermediate VRL values);
    MIX sends to the ISP administrative contacts an invoice for the difference between the fee already settled and the fee related to the new value, computed from the first month of over-usage;
  • if during the second month the bandwidth usage drops below the VRL value, the process is cleared;
  • if at the end of the third month the ISP has not paid the adjustment invoice, MIX configures on the switch port a physical rate-limit set at the VRL value, notifying it to the technical and administrative contacts of the ISP company.

Note. The third month has to be intended as a deadline for meeting payments: even if during the third month the bandwidth usage drops below the VRL, the VRL of the ISP is administratively updated to the new calculated value.

 

Description of the monitoring algorithm
The values that are considered are the ones coming from the tools that MIX uses to monitor the peering LAN.
Traffic samples are collected on each peering interface every 5 minutes, and are then stored in a database.
On the first day of every month, an analysis is performed on the entire previous month, in order to calculate the 90th percentile on both incoming and outgoing traffic.
The biggest of the two values is then considered as the monthly gathering, and is compared to the VRL.
If a member has more than one peering port active, the calculation is performed on the aggregate traffic.