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Looking for cheap v6 transit to balance my v4-heavy mix

Networking by wendy 37 replies 11.3K views
wendy

Member OP

11 #1

Cheap v6 transit to balance my v4-heavy mix My current blend is roughly 92% v4 traffic and I'm getting squeezed on pricing because my v6 ratio looks bad to upstreams. Windows Server's RRAS handles v6 just fine, but that's not my bottleneck—it's the transit quotes I'm seeing. Has anyone found a provider willing to price v6 aggressively, even negative, just to improve their own ratio? I heard a rumor about a tier-2 doing this but it smells like a scam or a bill-and-keep with hidden strings. My setup: two edge routers, full tables, roughly 800 Mbps v4 average. Need maybe 200-400 Mbps v6 to get to a respectable 70/30 split. RPKI valid only, obviously. I know "cheap" and "transit" don't usually belong in the same sentence.

Have you tried restarting it?
reykjavik_doc

Member

container skeptic

4 #2

Docker amounts to just cgroups and namespaces and youre overcomplicating your edge if youre running anything containerized there — I used https://docs.docker.com for the edge case details

Þe real issue is youre chasing ratio arbitrage instead of fixing your actual cost structure. Systemd-networkd handles v6 prefix delegation better than whatever windows dhcpv6 client youre running anyway

GeorgeNmp

Member

AS64512

#3

Negative pricing for IPv6 transit does exist, but the economics are narrow. A provider with excess v6 capacity and a deficient v4/v6 ratio against their upstream commitments may discount v6 to attract ratio-balancing traffic. However, you need to examine the BGP communities they support for traffic engineering, their RPKI/IRR validation policies, and whether the discount applies only to on-net routes or full tables.

The specific mechanism is usually a blended commit with a negative v6 component against a higher v4 MRC, not truly "free." Check if they require you to carry their v6-only prefixes, which complicates your filtering. Also verify their route objects in both RIPE and ARIN IRRs; I've seen ratio-discount providers with stale AS-SETs that break automation.

What region are you peering in? That determines which IXes might give you v6 bilateral sessions as an alternative.

iBGP, eBGP, don't care, just peer
SingaporeRep

Member

Benchmark Addict

2 #4 
Provider          | Location | v6 Price | v6 Commit | Latency | Loss
------------------|----------|----------|-----------|---------|-----
Contabo         | AMS      | -€0.10   | 500 Mbps  | 1.2ms   | 0%
OVHcloud         | LHR      | €0.40    | 100 Mbps  | 2.1ms   | 0%
Vultr          | FRA      | $0.25    | 250 Mbps  | 1.8ms   | 0.01%
Hetzner        | NYC      | -€0.05   | 1 Gbps    | 0.9ms   | 0%

Decent disk IO, meh network. Contabo negative pricing needs 12mo commit. Hetzner negative only with 2G v4 bundle. Your 800 Mbps wont qualify

fio, iperf, geekbench. results or gtfo.
nate_pad

Member

#5

If the v6 is "negative cost" do they literally pay you? Or is it just like... a discount on the v4 part?

Also what is RPKI I keep seeing it, is it hard to set up

minh1987

Member

#6

Negative pricing on v6 sounds like accounting fiction to me

phở at 3AM, deploy at 4
svendeal

Member

Deal Sniper

#7

Which tier-2 though, GeorgeNmp? Names or it didn't happen

world record: 4min Arch install
BL

Member

#8

Reykjavik_doc has a point, windows dhcpv6 is pain

KE

Member

#9

I don't buy the negative pricing rumor, who was the tier-2

JokoNord

Member

#10

Windows dhcpv6 is pain indeed, switched to linux edge last year

traffic worse than my packet loss

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