Peering diverts traffic from commercial Internet providers by as much as 40% and saves members an estimated $228,000 per year.

BCNET's peering services are designed to reduce commercial Internet transit costs and improve network performance for research and higher education member institutions. Peering diverts traffic from commercial Internet providers by as much as 40 per cent and saves members an estimated $228,000 per year.

Linking to CANARIE’s Content Distribution Service and the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX), BCNET connects its members to peer directly with major content and network service providers such as Google, Microsoft, Limelight, Akamai, Yahoo and Amazon. Every time a student or faculty member accesses these popular websites, traffic is diverted to the peering link, rather than traveling over the commercial Internet.

Peering enables Internet users at BCNET member sites to have better performance and is opening 40 per cent more capacity from Vancouver-based Internet service providers.