Tier 1, 2, 3, and?

hey guys

can you point me to the right documentation on Tiers and what they mean? I know sort of Tier 1 is like ATT and Tier 2 and 3 can be ISPs
but I would like some great infor on these networks to understand the grand scheme of things. Thanks for your time

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chmorin

The definition of tiered support system changes from company to company. Ref: Technical support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Generally, a Tier 1 support personnel will be directly interacting with the user and problem, and has little to no training.

As the Tiers go up, more trained personnel specialized in the problem at hand approach the problem and try to fix, before moving the issue upward to the next tier.

Eg... Tier 1) Help Desk. Tier 2) Desktop Support Team. Tier 3) Network/Server/Phone/Specific team. Tier 4) Specialized vendor support.

Something along those lines.

Turgon

chmorin wrote: »

The definition of tiered support system changes from company to company. Ref: Technical support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Generally, a Tier 1 support personnel will be directly interacting with the user and problem, and has little to no training.

As the Tiers go up, more trained personnel specialized in the problem at hand approach the problem and try to fix, before moving the issue upward to the next tier.

Eg... Tier 1) Help Desk. Tier 2) Desktop Support Team. Tier 3) Network/Server/Phone/Specific team. Tier 4) Specialized vendor support.

Something along those lines.

He's not talking about levels of support. The question is regarding the term used to define ISPs in terms of their internet transit.

Tier 1 network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ColbyG

I've read that the lines are very blurred as far as which ISP is which tier and it's kind of an arbitrary distinction.

jason_lunde

Page 5 in the BGP book by OReilly gives a pretty decent description on the 3 tiers. It is not real long, and the author does mention, like Colby said, that the lines are kind of blurred (especially between tiers 1 and 2). He says the main difference in the two is that tier two is usually geographically limited whereas tier 1's are not.

itdaddy

hey thanks guys that really clears things up will look at the oreilly book on BGP thank you very much

chmorin

Turgon wrote: »

He's not talking about levels of support. The question is regarding the term used to define ISPs in terms of their internet transit.

Tier 1 network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My ignorance is showing! -hides-

CChN

ColbyG wrote: »

I've read that the lines are very blurred as far as which ISP is which tier and it's kind of an arbitrary distinction.

If you have to ask yourself "Am I a Tier 1?" You're not a Tier 1.

Onefive

From the top of my head, The Tier 1 networks are: Level3, Abovenet, ATT, VZ, Global Crossing, Reliance, Qwest, and NTT. But there is no official list of the 'tier 1 networks', and the term can mean different things to different people.