A Network for League of Legends Players: Here’s What We Know About North Bridge

Riot Ahab of NA Publishing for Riot Games has announced updates for the new and dedicated League network. What does this mean? Well, here are some of their plans for the network and what will behold for all League players.

The North Bridge Network

Currently, this bridge is pathing League traffic for the northern US and Canada and is built out of a series of strategically placed PoPs (points of presence) with direct connections between them.

The “North Bridge” is a dedicated highway for League traffic between you and the servers while the PoPs will be connection-like points such as on-ramps. They will get your data on the highway to the servers in the most direct route as physically possible.

PoPs consist of two elements:

• Physical hardware: servers and switches placed in key cities. 
• Peering agreements: contractual agreements set up with ISPs to funnel traffic directly to the closest PoPs.

The biggest challenge is making sure local traffic finds its way to the on-ramp. This is where peering agreements come in: these partnership agreements mean ISPs now redirect League traffic off of their networks and toward the nearest PoPs.

This means connections running through this network should experience a more stable, consistent experience while playing League of Legends since it’s taking the most direct route possible to the game servers. When Phase 3 of the NA Server Roadmap deploys, this network will provide as many players as possible a comparable ping when connecting to the more centralized server location.

Here is a list of US and Canadian ISPs Riot Games is currently partnering with.

• Atlas Networks Corporation
• Charter Communications
• Clear Wireless
• Cogent Communications
• Comcast Cable Communications
• Eltopia
• Hurricane Electric
• Interconnected Associates
• LS Networks
• NetRiver
• NTT America
• Pocketinet Communications
• Rogers Cable Communications
• Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel)
• Shaw Communications
• Syringa Networks
• TekSavvy Solutions
• TELUS Communications
• TeraGo Networks
• Threshold Communications
• Vision Net
• WiscNet
• Worldlink