Peering location in Azure

Question

Hello, I am interested in creating a express route connection in Azure. I would like to know if the distance between the express route peering location and my location is a problem. Specifically, I'm wondering if there is a difference in connecting to the Amsterdam express route peering location from North Europe versus West Europe. Can you direct me to any documentation on network latency? Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello @ares ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & hope you are doing well.

I understand that you would like to know more about ExpressRoute peering locations and how the chosen location can impact network latency.

ExpressRoute locations (sometimes referred to as peering locations or meet-me-locations) are co-location facilities where Microsoft Enterprise Edge (MSEE) devices are located. ExpressRoute locations are the entry point to Microsoft's network – and are globally distributed, providing customers the opportunity to connect to Microsoft's network around the world. These locations are where ExpressRoute partners and ExpressRoute Direct customers issue cross connections to Microsoft's network.

Refer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-locations#expressroute-locations

As @Deepanshu katara mentioned above and is documented in the ExpressRoute network performance doc,

Geographic latency (miles or kilometers) between the end points you're testing is by far the largest component of latency. While there is equipment latency (physical and virtual components, number of hops, etc.) involved, geography has proven to be the largest component of overall latency when dealing with WAN connections. It's also important to note that the distance is the distance of the fiber run not the straight-line or road map distance. This distance is incredibly hard to get with any accuracy. As a result, we generally use a city distance calculator on the internet and know that this method is a grossly inaccurate measure but is enough to set a general expectation.

Refer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-troubleshooting-network-performance#latencybandwidth-expectations

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

---

Please "Accept the answer" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.