On Tue, Mar 19, 2002 at 08:53:23AM -0800, Jon Bennett <jonb200192865@yahoo.com> wrote:
Is there a need for additional IXs or are there too many today and some should be consolidated or shut down altogether? If there is a need for new IXs, where do you put them? Who decides where to build a new IX and how do you get service providers to show up there once it is built?
Thanks.
There are many types of IXes built around many different needs, just as there are with ISPs. Large IXes: =========== Tend to have a number of Tier1/2/3 ISPs participating in a wide range of peering capacity (from 10meg to GigE/OC48), via either switch fabric (like LINX), or via mix of switch-aggregated and private peering. Where are these located? Generally in areas of high traffic pass-through due to continental or inter-continental fiber routing or teledensity: Silicon Valley, Washington DC, Chicago, NYC Metro, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo Drivers for these large IXes tend to follow the need of Tier1/2 networks to have multiple locations to peer so traffic engineering can be regionalized with robust alternate paths. For U.S. continental footprint, I would say the following list is important for good regional granularity: Silicon Valley, Wash D.C. Metro, NYC Metro, Dallas, Chicago, LA, and secondary: Atlanta, Boston, Seattle, Denver. For Europe, I believe you are seeing similar emergence of additional large IXes in other key cities, reducing the dependence on London and Amsterdam. Historical IXes: ================ Peering locations that had high historical value, but are no longer as significant as requirements and technology changed. Local IXes: ============ Many of these are so local-to-local entities can peer without going across more expensive regional or out-of-country links. Common participants may be local dial providers, local small web hosters, universities, local business and govt institutions. For many of these players, a T1 or E1 or 10-meg port may be considered a large investment, especially if hauled half way across a country with low teledensity. These exchanges may be critical to the Internet economics of these locations. Transit IXes: ============= These are often local IXes, where a larger ISP has also setup shop to offer transit for non-local traffic. Cheers, -Lane Lane Patterson Research Engineer Equinix, Inc.
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