E-commerce can be greatly affected by these multiple hops, obstructing a user's ability to access an organization's website. A limited geographic range may also necessitate more administrative overhead for monitoring multiple SLAs from multiple providers, each requiring a separate fee. Connectivity to other providers is crucial in determining the overall stability and reliability of a provider's network. Providers connect to each other in a hierarchical manner, referred to as tiers, to most effectively utilize the available bandwidth. Tier 1 providers generally have national or worldwide proprietary networks that connect multiple Tier 2 providers, which in turn sell this connectivity to end clients.
Many providers offer network diagrams for further scrutiny upon request.
Most Tier 1 ISPs have access points into their network in many large cities. To create an additional level of redundancy, an organization can provide circuits to connect to separate access points within a provider's network. Differing access points are not beneficial if local access loop paths do not differ as well. To create a fully redundant architecture, an organization must ensure that all paths between endpoints are unique and that no single point of failure is evident. Most organizations with a single Internet provider design utilize a block of addressing from the provider.