Peering

Peering is the direct interconnection between Microsoft’s network (AS8075) and another network for the purpose of exchanging traffic between these networks.

Microsoft peers at the Internet Exchanges and peering facilities listed in PeeringDB.

We are working to improve peering experience by onboarding a new process to setup peering with Microsoft. You may use an API or programmatic way to request and monitor peering. This is currently in Preview. To try, please visit the documentation. Otherwise,

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Peering Policy

Microsoft has a selective, but generally open peering policy - peers are selected based upon performance, capability, and where there is mutual benefit, and are subject to certain technical, commercial and legal requirements. Microsoft's general technical requirements for peering are:

  • A fully redundant network with sufficient capacity to exchange traffic without congestion.
  • A knowledgeable and fully staffed 24x7x365 Network Operations Center (NOC), capable of assisting in the resolution of:
  • All technical and performance issues.
  • All security violations, denial of service attacks, or any other abuse originating within the peer or their customers.
  • Microsoft will overwrite received Multi-Exit Discriminators (MEDs) by default.
  • Acceptance of MEDs will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
  • A publicly routable ASN.
  • At least one publicly routable /24.
  • Current and complete peeringdb.com entry including a 24x7 NOC email role account and phone number.
  • Neither party shall establish a static route, a route of last resort, or otherwise send traffic to the other party for a route not announced via BGP.
  • Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported and Microsoft prefers to establish sessions of both types in each peering location.
  • Unless specifically agreed upon beforehand, peers are expected to announce consistent routes in all locations where they peer with Microsoft.
  • Microsoft prefers to receive BGP community-tags from peers to indicate route origination. Both parties are expected to register their routes in a public Internet Routing Registry (IRR) database, for the purpose of filtering. Both parties shall make good faith efforts to keep this information up to date.
  • MD5 is not required, nor recommended.
  • All parties peering with Microsoft agree not to accept routes from AS12076 (Express Route) under any circumstances, and should filter out AS12076 on all peers.

Additional Requirements for Private Interconnections

  • Interconnection must be over single-mode fiber using the appropriate 10Gbps or 100Gbps optics.
  • Peers are expected to upgrade their ports when peak utilization exceeds 50% and maintain diverse capacity in each metro, either within a single location or across several locations in a metro.
  • Microsoft will only establish private interconnection points with ISP or Network Service providers.

North America and Europe

  • At least 2Gbps of traffic.
  • Interconnect in at least three geographically diverse locations if feasible and maintain diverse capacity to allow traffic to failover within each metro.

LATAM

  • Interconnect in as many diverse locations as possible within country/continent.
  • Must maintain sufficient diverse capacity to ensure traffic remains in region.
  • Peers may see a regional subset of Microsoft routes.

APAC

  • At least 500Mbps of traffic.
  • Interconnect in as many diverse locations as possible within country/region.
  • Must maintain sufficient diverse capacity to ensure traffic remains in region.
  • Peers may see a regional subset of Microsoft routes.

Africa & Middle East

  • Interconnect in as many diverse locations as possible.
  • Must maintain sufficient diverse capacity to ensure traffic remains in region.
  • Peers may see a regional subset of Microsoft routes.

Routing Policy

In general, peering sessions with AS8075 will advertise all AS-MICROSOFT routes. AS8075 interconnects in Africa, LATAM, Middle East and Asia may be limited to routes relevant to the respective region.

Traffic Management

Where possible, Microsoft prefers to carry traffic on its network to interconnection points as close to users as possible. Microsoft recommends that peers advertise all of their prefixes over all peering sessions, unless other route advertisement policies have been agreed upon.

Maximum Prefix

We suggest peers set a max-prefix of 5000 (IPv4) and 500 (IPv6) routes on peering sessions with Microsoft.

Related ASNs

Microsoft also manages the following ASNs: AS8068, AS8069, AS12076. For a complete list of ASNs with AS8075 peering reference AS-SET MICROSOFT.