Peering Exchange Configurations

[bdflemin at gmail.com (Brad Fleming)]

Hello All,

First, apologies for the change in email address.. my work account was  
getting a little busy so I've moved my lists to my Gmail account. But  
onward..

I'm interested in peering exchange design. We are not lucky enough to  
have access to a peering exchange so I have no direct experience. My  
questions are as follows:

1) Is a private AS typically used for the exchange side of the session?
2) Are RFC1918 IPs typically used for the p2p links into the exchange?
3) Do peering exchanges typically remove their AS from the path  
advertised to exchange participants?
     3a) If no: Do participants typically preference exchange-learned  
routes over other sources?
4) Do exchanges typically support the following address families?
       IPv4 Multicast
       IPv6 Unicast
       IPv6 Multicast

In exchanges where a route server is employed:
4) Do participants have a p2p link into a simple routing environment  
then multi-hop to a route server?
5) I see that Bird, OpenBDGd, and Quagga are all options for route  
server software. Does one of those packages stand out as the clear  
current choice for production peering exchanges?


I very much appreciate any responses.

--
Brad Fleming