Peering

A relationship between two or more small- or medium-sized ISPs in which the ISPs create a direct link between each other and agree to forward each other's packets directly across this link instead of using the standard Internet backbone. For example, suppose a client of ISP X wants to access a web site hosted by ISP Y. If X and Y have a peering relationship, the HTTP packets will travel directly between the two ISPs. In general, this results in faster access since there are fewer hops. And for the ISPs, it's more economical because they don't need to pay fees to a third-party Network Service Provider (NSP).