Category: Internet Exchange Point

Internet Exchange Point and its Necessity

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What is an Internet Exchange?

An internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical network access point through which primary network providers connect their networks and exchange traffic. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the Internet can be stored in some physical segment. Although it is true, that the internet is stored. While using the Internet, we connect to two networks at a time to acquire data and is known as Peering.

What is Peering?

Peering is a process by which two Internet networks connect and exchange traffic to distribute traffic to each other’s customers without having to pay a third party to carry that traffic across the Internet for them. The routing protocol that allows peering between ISPs is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which is free and benefits all ISPs.

What are the different types of Peering?

  • Public Peering: Public peering is performed over a Shared network called Internet Exchange Points through which connecting to many peers becomes easy with lesser costs. Useful for a small volume of traffic.
  • Private Peering: Private peering is performed by establishing a direct physical connection (usually consisting of one or more 10GE fibers) between two internet networks. Useful for Large volume of traffic.

Why does a country need an IXP?

Let’s presume, that you as an end user browsing something which is hosted outside India through your service provider, the query will go all the way through the international gateway to Singapore and then come back to you. The time taken to achieve this becomes much.  In order to get this query to be routed locally, IXP’s come in to picture which provides a platform to those providers to host their infrastructure locally and serve the users with lowest possible latency.

What are the benefits of Internet Exchange Points (IXP)?

  1. Substantial cost saving with local networks & hosting global CDNs.
  2. More improved bandwidth.
  3. Reduced latency with a better quality of experience.
  4. High-speed data transfer.
  5. Enhanced Routing efficiency.

Should businesses be close to IX Points?

Being close to internet exchanges can be thoroughly favorable for your business/company if you want to recover information from collocation facilities, like data centers, often. This is mostly due to the cost of sustaining the network but is also applicable to the time it takes to recover information from the centre. However, if you want to recover something from an internet exchange that is not situated physically close to your office, you would require more than just the fiber cable and other equipment which can turn out to be costly to maintain.

Internet exchanges make the internet a swift and easy tool for business use. It helps you retrieve and forward data over the internet and execute tasks. Being close to an IXP can bring the company great advantages and help it to achieve more as costs will be lower, response time will be lower and your data will be safer.

Mumbai Convergence Hub was India’s first private Internet Exchange which is now DE-CIX India. DE-CIX India is one of the Largest Internet Exchange in India currently interconnects 200+ Networks all across India & the World. DE-CIX India runs Internet Exchange Point in Indian Metro cities in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata & in Chennai. DE-CIX India is a carrier & datacenter neutral, Internet Exchange for the Indian & South Asian markets DE-CIX India is backed by DE-CIX Global which is the world’s largest Internet Exchange with 8 terabits of per second. DE-CIX also runs 16+ Internet exchanges across the world.

DE-CIX India is always happy to help its community, if you wish to connect or have any query, please drop us a mail at marketing@de-cix.in

A Complete Guide to an Internet Exchange Point

Posted on by admin

What does an Internet Exchange Point do? How does it work? What benefits does it provide, and why are more and more ISPs turning to them? Find out here:

  • What Is An Internet Exchange Point?

An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a network point at which Internet service providers and Content Delivery Networks exchange Internet traffic between their networks. At an IXP, all participants’ networks interconnect via common switching equipment instead of via each other’s internal infrastructure. Each participant in an IXP generally has two connections to every other participant’s networks: one for incoming traffic from peers at a lower speed which will be delivered internally, and another for sending higher-speed traffic to peers external to that organization. Thus, an IXP allows Internet service providers to exchange high volumes of traffic among themselves without incurring these costs on their own infrastructure or purchasing transit services from any other entity. Inbound data can come at higher speeds without being throttled by low-speed customer connections, and outbound data can be delivered more quickly with fewer hops across different networks.

  • History Of IXPs

The growth of Internet traffic over time is staggering: At its inception, on October 29th, 1969—the moment you’ve likely heard about as being the birth of the Internet—less than 5 kilobytes of data was transmitted over ARPANET. Forty years later (as of November 2010), ARPANET alone transferred an astounding 10 petabytes of data per day! As such, ISP-to-ISP connections using IXPs are not something we need today because there isn’t enough capacity built into the Internet infrastructure to support them yet. This will change soon, though. As Web 2.0 and social media continue to grow in popularity and importance, ISPs will start building more connections between each other so that every device, no matter where it is physically located in global networks, can access all services.

  • Benefits Of An Internet Exchange Point

IXPs allow organizations with direct connections to exchange Internet traffic without paying for transit. Traffic can be transported between exchanges using any protocol and topology with no restrictions. They provide a more efficient route of network traffic by eliminating intermediate providers. An IXP also eliminates congestion and packet loss in networks caused by downstream providers at peering points. Another major benefit of IXP is network resilience.

  • How Does It Work?

An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a large and geographically distributed network of IP routers through which many Internet service providers (ISPs) exchange Internet traffic. This architecture allows local ISPs to connect and exchange traffic with each other rather than send all traffic out through their international links. Traffic from one IXP can be quickly switched to another if there is a link failure or if there are problems with any of the equipment in a particular IXP.

  • Where Are They Located?

The simplest way of defining it is as a physical location where Internet service providers (ISPs) interconnect, forming a point through which data can pass directly between them. So, essentially, Internet exchange points are places where ISPs come together—usually in a neutral, third-party building or at least not in their own facilities—to trade traffic freely and without being charged.

To conclude

Internet Exchange Points are a great way to exchange internet traffic between various networks that do not have direct connections. It can significantly lower latency and increase overall network performance. This write-up aims to give you a basic understanding of what an Internet Exchange Point is, how it works, and its benefits.

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