PacketFabric Network Hierarchy

PacketFabric network hierarchy

Region
A region doesn’t follow specific boundaries, but typically represents a general geopolitical area.
Market
A market is not a single city; it is a geographical metropolitan area (also referred to as a “metro”). For example, the New York City market includes POPs located in New Jersey.
Whether a service extends outside a market affects how you are billed:
  • If a virtual circuit extends between POPs within a market, data transfer is free.
  • If your source port and cloud on-ramp port are in the same market, you receive Metro pricing on a cloud connection. For more information on metro pricing, see our cloud connectivity pricing calculator.
POP
A POP (point of presence) is one or more sites in the same cross connect domain. This means that an operator can run a cross connect to every site within the POP.
Note the following:
  • When you select a location for your service, you select it at the POP level.
  • Our POP names and numbers are unique to PacketFabric and do not map to any data center names or designations.
  • There can be multiple POPs in a market.
Site
PacketFabric equipment is installed at the site level.
A site can be any physical location with its own shipping address. For example, a site might be a floor or suite within a building, or it might be the entire building.
You can view the sites within a POP through our API. However, sites are not available for individual selection when provisioning ports.

Example

Using the example below, let’s say you provision a port in the CHI2 POP. This means that the actual port itself could be in either Cyxtera Chicago ORD1 or Digital Realty CHI1. PacketFabric programatically selects the specific site on your behalf.

  • If you connect to a cloud on-ramp in the CHI3 POP, you receive Metro transit pricing.

  • If you create a virtual circuit to the CHI3 POP, you are not charged for data transfer.

  • If you connect to a port in any POP outside the Chicago market (e.g. the ATL1 POP), you are charged long-haul data transfer pricing.

PacketFabric network hierarchy

Updated on 27 Mar 2021