IP Transit
This document is an informative description of the standard Inter.link IP Transit service. The applicable service order, Service Level Agreement (SLA), and Master Services Agreement (MSA) prevail in the event of any conflict.
Service overview
Section titled “Service overview”Inter.link IP Transit is a dual-stack Layer 3 Internet connectivity service for customers operating a public or private Autonomous System. The customer exchanges IPv4 and IPv6 routes with Inter.link AS5405 using external BGP.
The service is available at every Inter.link point of presence (PoP). The service order records the customer-specific location, port, bandwidth, VLAN, addresses, routing options, diversity, term, and charges.
The standard service boundary extends from the Inter.link provider edge to the Inter.link patch panel in the building meet-me room (MMR). Customer equipment, cabling, power, and any extension beyond that demarcation remain the customer’s responsibility. A data-centre cross-connect may be ordered directly by the customer or supplied by Inter.link as a separately quoted item.
IP Transit includes remote-triggered blackholing (RTBH) support. BGP FlowSpec and DDoS mitigation and scrubbing are separately ordered services.
Service and routing options
Section titled “Service and routing options”Every service includes IPv4 and IPv6; IPv4-only and IPv6-only orders are not supported. The customer may receive a full Internet table, a default route, or a full table plus a default route. Partial route sets may be quoted separately.
One IPv4 BGP session and one IPv6 BGP session are provided per service by default. Additional sessions are supported. Both public and private ASNs may be used.
The service may use a dedicated port or share a physical port or Link Aggregation Group (LAG) with other Inter.link logical services. Flat-rate and burstable CDR billing models are available. Multiple services, including services on ports in different PoPs, may be placed in a separately ordered aggregation group.
Physical and logical handoff
Section titled “Physical and logical handoff”All physical interfaces operate in full-duplex mode. Auto-negotiation is not supported. Inter.link supplies and maintains the transceiver installed in Inter.link equipment; the customer supplies and maintains the transceiver in the customer equipment.
Supported transceivers
Section titled “Supported transceivers”| Interface | Standard transceiver | FEC behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| 1G | 1G-LX | — |
| 10G | 10G-LR | — |
| 25G | 25G-LR | RS-FEC by default; FC-FEC is available |
| 100G | 100G-LR or 100G-LR4 | RS-FEC where required by the optic |
| 400G | 400G-LR4 | — |
All listed optics use single-mode fibre. Connector type, reach, wavelength, and optical operating limits follow the selected transceiver. Other optical options may be quoted separately.
Ethernet presentation
Section titled “Ethernet presentation”| Attribute | Standard behaviour |
|---|---|
| Tagged service | Outer TPID 0x8100; the outer VLAN ID must exactly match the service configuration |
| Untagged service | One untagged service per physical port |
| VLAN range | VLAN IDs 1–4094 |
| Incorrect ingress VLAN | The frame is discarded |
| IP MTU | 1,500 bytes standard; jumbo frames can be enabled but support over the Internet is best-effort |
Link aggregation
Section titled “Link aggregation”LACP is supported with one or multiple members. All members must have identical speeds and terminate on the same Inter.link router. Fast LACP timers are used, and no minimum members are configured. If a member fails, flows are redistributed across the remaining active members while the LAG remains operational.
Bandwidth and traffic treatment
Section titled “Bandwidth and traffic treatment”Current port speeds, bandwidth options, and ordering increments must be confirmed in the customer portal or with Sales.
A flat-rate service is policed to the ordered bandwidth. A burstable service has no configured burst ceiling below the physical port capacity. For a burstable service, the ordered CDR is a billing commitment and not a data-plane policer.
There is no class-based QoS. DSCP and ECN values are preserved unchanged within the Inter.link-managed service, but their preservation across the public Internet is not guaranteed. Congestion is handled through ordinary packet discard.
Burstable-service measurement
Section titled “Burstable-service measurement”Burstable usage is measured using interface octets. For each target month, Inter.link obtains inbound and outbound traffic data in five-minute intervals and calculates a 95th-percentile value independently for each direction. The greater value is the measured monthly usage.
For a separately ordered aggregation group, the independently selected p95 value of each member service is summed and compared with the aggregation-group CDR.
Aggregation may include services on different ports and in different PoPs. Each service remains limited only by its physical port capacity.
IP addressing and route exchange
Section titled “IP addressing and route exchange”Inter.link assigns an IPv4 /31 and an IPv6 /127 transfer network by
default. Larger transfer networks and Inter.link-assigned routed address blocks
are available on request.
The IPv4 BGP session carries IPv4 unicast routes and the IPv6 BGP session carries IPv6 unicast routes. BGP multihop is not supported; sessions must be directly connected. Customer-advertised address space must be owned or otherwise authorized by the customer. Detailed route validation and route acceptance are defined in the separate Routing Policies document. Traffic-engineering communities and RTBH policy are defined in the separate BGP Communities document.
Session parameters
Section titled “Session parameters”| Parameter | Standard behaviour |
|---|---|
| Provider ASN | AS5405 |
| Protocol and transport | BGP-4 over directly connected external BGP sessions |
| BGP keepalive | 60 seconds |
| BGP hold time | 180 seconds |
| TCP MD5 | Supported and encouraged, but not required |
| GTSM | Supported, disabled by default |
| BFD | Optional asynchronous BFD for IPv4 and IPv6; transmit 300 ms, receive 300 ms, multiplier 3 |
| Graceful restart | Enabled with restart time 300 seconds |
Inter.link acts as a graceful-restart helper and retains customer routes when the customer advertises graceful-restart capability for the relevant IPv4 or IPv6 address family. During an Inter.link control-plane restart, forwarding is preserved and Inter.link advertises the Forwarding State bit. A BFD failure or confirmed physical-path failure overrides graceful restart and causes immediate route removal.
Maximum-prefix management
Section titled “Maximum-prefix management”Maximum-prefix limits are derived from the customer’s PeeringDB record and synchronized daily. Missing PeeringDB information is verified manually. Stale information leaves the configured limit unchanged, while a reduced PeeringDB value is applied at the next synchronization. Automatic synchronization may be disabled on request; subsequent manual limit changes are requested by opening a ticket in the customer portal.
Exceeding the limit does not shut down the BGP session. Additional prefixes are ignored. The portal displays the current limit and accepted and ignored prefix counts.
Optional routing controls
Section titled “Optional routing controls”RTBH is the included DDoS control. BGP FlowSpec is ordered separately through Sales and uses the service’s existing address-family BGP sessions: IPv4 rules are carried over the IPv4 session and IPv6 rules over the IPv6 session.
Enhanced detection, diversion, scrubbing, and clean-traffic return are available through the separate DDoS Protection service.
Resilience and diversity
Section titled “Resilience and diversity”IP Transit may be ordered with varying levels of diversity. Sales can confirm which diversity levels are available.
Every path receives the full ordered bandwidth independently. Both paths and their BGP sessions are active and forwarding-ready; normal customer and Inter.link BGP policy controls traffic selection. The service order defines the diversity boundary and any dependencies outside it.
Responsibilities
Section titled “Responsibilities”| Activity | Inter.link | Customer or third party |
|---|---|---|
| Backbone and provider edge | Operates AS5405 and the provider edge | — |
| Service configuration | Provisions the ordered port and IP Transit service | Supplies complete and accurate order data |
| Transceivers and customer equipment | Supplies and maintains the Inter.link-side transceiver | Supplies and maintains the customer-side transceiver, router, cabling, power, and configuration |
| Cross-connect | May supply it when separately quoted | Orders and maintains it unless included in the Inter.link quote |
| Routing authorization | Applies the published routing policy | Maintains accurate IRR objects, RPKI ROAs, and address-space authorizations |
| Capacity | Engineers the provider network and delivers the ordered service | Manages customer-side capacity and any port oversubscription |
| Diverse delivery | Provides full ordered bandwidth on each path and the ordered diversity boundary | Operates both customer-side paths and controls traffic selection through BGP policy |
| Fault isolation | Tests to the demarcation and manages the support ticket | Provides access, evidence, and customer-side testing |
| DDoS controls | Provides the included or separately ordered capability | Maintains contacts and activates customer-controlled measures where applicable |
Service levels and support
Section titled “Service levels and support”Availability and performance commitments, incident priorities, response and restoration targets, maintenance rules, exclusions, remedies, and service credits are defined exclusively in the applicable SLA. Nothing in this informative specification changes those terms.