Automating Public Peering at Facebook: Best Practices and System Design

Traffic on the Internet traverses many different links, and peering provides a fast, reliable way for networks and service providers to exchange traffic. Historically, peering was managed through labor‑intensive manual processes that were slow and error‑prone.

For Facebook, reliable peering is critical to delivering content such as a friend’s cat video quickly to users. The article contrasts two routing options: a slower, high‑latency path that passes through sub‑optimal networks, and a faster, direct path that uses BGP peering sessions to exchange traffic directly.

Why Automate Public Peering

Across the industry, manual peering configuration is slow, inefficient, and prone to mistakes. As Facebook added connections to new Internet exchange points (IX) and multiple routers per IX, the manual workload grew. Engineers had to process peering requests received via email, verify traffic levels using internal dashboards and external resources like PeeringDB, configure BGP sessions with internal tools, and wait for the peer to configure their side—an effort estimated at over nine hours per week.

Solution

Facebook introduced a public portal at facebook.com/peering where peers can request their own public peering sessions.

PeeringDB OAuth Service

PeeringDB is an open‑source database of network peering information. Facebook uses PeeringDB’s OAuth service to authenticate requesters with their PeeringDB login, eliminating the need for a separate Facebook account. Once authenticated, peers see a list of existing public peering sessions with Facebook and can submit new requests.

After a request is submitted, an internal workflow takes over: an automated email is sent to the peer, the request enters a review queue, and if approved, a backend service gathers necessary data (IP addresses, prefix limits) from PeeringDB and Facebook’s internal tables, configures the BGP session on Facebook routers, and notifies the peer. The workflow monitors the session daily and sends reminder emails on days 2, 3, 7, and 13 until the session is confirmed as active.

Creating an Industry Standard

Since launch, over 170 peering requests have been received, 149 approved, and more than 1,400 public peering sessions have been automatically provisioned, saving more than eight hours of manual work each week.

Facebook recommends using PeeringDB OAuth as a standard for public peering automation and is exploring similar automation for private network interconnects (PNI), which involve far larger volumes of peering.