Netnod Internet Exchange i Sverige
Encyclopedia
Netnod Internet Exchange in Sweden AB (Netnod) is the largest operator of Internet exchange point
s in Sweden
. Netnod is a fully owned subsidiary of a foundation , also known as the TU foundation. The TU foundation and Netnod was founded in late 1996 and became operational in 1997.
(KTH) in Stockholm
and operated by KTHNOC. D-GIX had been one of the first IXes that were established in Europe, and quite successful at that. In 1996 a report by a committee) had listed infrastructure that was critical for the operation of the Internet in Sweden. Among the critical infrastructure listed was a robust and reliable Internet exchange. A number of factors led KTH as well as the Swedish ISPs to conclude that a separate legal entity would be a better operational format. After legal consultations, and seeing that the Swedish government seemed keen to play a role in the infrastructure operation, the Swedish ISPs decided to found the TU Foundation. The capital ironically came from a government set up foundation, the Knowledge Foundation, KK-stiftelsen, one of the largest Swedish research foundations. The idea behind the ownership model with the foundation was that it would guarantee independence from the operators as well as from the government. Linkage to the operational community comes from the fact that the Swedish university network SUNET
appoints one of the board members, and the Swedish Operator Forum appoints two of the Netnod board members.
The TU-Foundation established the operational company Netnod to run the IX. In the beginning Netnod had no staff of its own and all operations were outsourced to the Swedish military. In 2001, Netnod created fully owned a subsidiary called Autonomica. Autonomica was to run the operations for Netnod (who then as well as now, do not have any staff of its own) as well as run the i.root-servers.net on behalf of NORDUnet
and do Internet related research. In the beginning the staff mainly focused on DNS and management and the operations considered to be outsourced to the military. However, finally in 2002 Autonomicas staff grew considerably and the contract with the military was ended. Operations is today done entirely by Netnod staff.
, Gothenburg
, Malmö
and Sundsvall
. All of these locations were located in the government bunkers, as opposed to co-location facilities as the case in most other countries. The exchanges are independent and not linked, so operators connected in one city will only see other operators connected in the same city. However, most of the larger Swedish providers are connected at all four cities. Netnod since 2004 also operates an IX in Luleå
.
. At a Swedish Operator Forum meeting the alternatives were discussed. The options were basically two. The new Gigabit Ethernet
standard, and a standard developed by Cisco
called Spatial Reuse Protocol
, SRP. The decision to go with SRP was basically based on the fact that at the time Gigabit Ethernet and SRP had roughly the same cost. SRP also did not have the issue of head-of-line blocking, and SRP had a larger MTU
size than what Gigabit Ethernet
had at the time. So the Swedish operators decided that Netnod should implement SRP. The SRP rings installed were running at 2x622Mbit/s in each city.
It wasn't soon until the 2x622Mbit/s was not enough. Netnod then proposed to the operators to migrate to SRP 2x2.5Gbit/s, which was also installed. The larger operators all moved to the new SRP rings, but the smaller operators wanted a cheaper method. By 2000, Gigabit Ethernet was starting to become mass-market and the price had dropped compared to SRP. Gigabit Ethernet had by then also implemented jumboframes. Netnod said they were willing to implement Gigabit Ethernet, but wanted 8 operators to promise to sign up to cover the costs. In the mean time some operators went off and created an alternative, Ethernet based IX, SOL-IX. However, Netnod managed to get their 8 customers quite fast and built out Gigabit Ethernet at all cities. For 2 years, the old FDDI exchange (that was still operational) was connected to the Ethernet switches, but by the end of 2002, all SRP and FDDI equipment had been migrated away from.
Today the Netnod platform consists of single chassis Gigabit Ethernet switches at each location. Operators are connected with either 1Gigabit or 10Gigabit Ethernet, with a clear trend of operators moving to 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections.
Internet Exchange Point
An Internet exchange point is a physical infrastructure through which Internet service providers exchange Internet traffic between their networks . IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic which must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit...
s in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Netnod is a fully owned subsidiary of a foundation , also known as the TU foundation. The TU foundation and Netnod was founded in late 1996 and became operational in 1997.
History
The predecessor to the TU Foundation / Netnod was the D-GIX, an Internet exchange point that was established at the Royal Institute of TechnologyRoyal Institute of Technology
The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
(KTH) in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and operated by KTHNOC. D-GIX had been one of the first IXes that were established in Europe, and quite successful at that. In 1996 a report by a committee) had listed infrastructure that was critical for the operation of the Internet in Sweden. Among the critical infrastructure listed was a robust and reliable Internet exchange. A number of factors led KTH as well as the Swedish ISPs to conclude that a separate legal entity would be a better operational format. After legal consultations, and seeing that the Swedish government seemed keen to play a role in the infrastructure operation, the Swedish ISPs decided to found the TU Foundation. The capital ironically came from a government set up foundation, the Knowledge Foundation, KK-stiftelsen, one of the largest Swedish research foundations. The idea behind the ownership model with the foundation was that it would guarantee independence from the operators as well as from the government. Linkage to the operational community comes from the fact that the Swedish university network SUNET
SUNET
SUNET is the Swedish University Computer Network. SUNET provides high-speed Internet access to academic institutions in Sweden. The current incarnation of the network, OptoSunet, provides 40 Gbit/s links between the cities hosting universities. It replaces the older network, GigaSunet, based mainly...
appoints one of the board members, and the Swedish Operator Forum appoints two of the Netnod board members.
The TU-Foundation established the operational company Netnod to run the IX. In the beginning Netnod had no staff of its own and all operations were outsourced to the Swedish military. In 2001, Netnod created fully owned a subsidiary called Autonomica. Autonomica was to run the operations for Netnod (who then as well as now, do not have any staff of its own) as well as run the i.root-servers.net on behalf of NORDUnet
NORDUnet
NORDUnet is an international collaboration between the Nordic national computer networks for research and education. The members of NORDUnet are:* SUNET of Sweden* UNINETT of Norway* FUNET of Finland* Forskningsnettet of Denmark* RHnet of Iceland...
and do Internet related research. In the beginning the staff mainly focused on DNS and management and the operations considered to be outsourced to the military. However, finally in 2002 Autonomicas staff grew considerably and the contract with the military was ended. Operations is today done entirely by Netnod staff.
Redundancy and physical security
From the beginning, as was cited in the Internetutredningen report, the IX operated by Netnod was considered as critical national infrastructure. Netnod therefor in 1997 agreed with the Swedish telecommunications regulator to locate the IX equipment in government operated secure telecommunications bunkers. In addition, it was agreed that operations should not be dependent on Stockholm alone. Netnod therefor established IXes in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
and Sundsvall
Sundsvall
-External links:* - Official site from Nordisk Familjebok - Sundsvalls tourist information bureau. - The alternative guide to Sundsvall. - Blog with photos from Sundsvall....
. All of these locations were located in the government bunkers, as opposed to co-location facilities as the case in most other countries. The exchanges are independent and not linked, so operators connected in one city will only see other operators connected in the same city. However, most of the larger Swedish providers are connected at all four cities. Netnod since 2004 also operates an IX in Luleå
Luleå
- Transportation :Local buses are run by .A passenger train service is available from Luleå Centralstation on Sweden's national SJ railway service northbound to Narvik on the Norwegian coast, or southbound to Stockholm. See Rail transport in Sweden....
.
Technology
The first D-GIX was a 10 Mbit/s switch. By the time D-GIX was replaced by Netnod the exchange point consisted of two FDDI switches in Stockholm and one was also installed in Gothenburg. Around 1998, the FDDI circuits were filled and traffic was heavily impacted by head-of-line blockingHead-of-line blocking
Head-of-line blocking is a performance-limiting phenomenon that occurs in buffered telecommunication network switches.-Description:...
. At a Swedish Operator Forum meeting the alternatives were discussed. The options were basically two. The new Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...
standard, and a standard developed by Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
called Spatial Reuse Protocol
Spatial Reuse Protocol
Spatial Reuse Protocol is a networking protocol developed by Cisco. It is a MAC-layer protocol for ring-based packet internetworking that is commonly used in optical fiber ring networks...
, SRP. The decision to go with SRP was basically based on the fact that at the time Gigabit Ethernet and SRP had roughly the same cost. SRP also did not have the issue of head-of-line blocking, and SRP had a larger MTU
Maximum transmission unit
In computer networking, the maximum transmission unit of a communications protocol of a layer is the size of the largest protocol data unit that the layer can pass onwards. MTU parameters usually appear in association with a communications interface...
size than what Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...
had at the time. So the Swedish operators decided that Netnod should implement SRP. The SRP rings installed were running at 2x622Mbit/s in each city.
It wasn't soon until the 2x622Mbit/s was not enough. Netnod then proposed to the operators to migrate to SRP 2x2.5Gbit/s, which was also installed. The larger operators all moved to the new SRP rings, but the smaller operators wanted a cheaper method. By 2000, Gigabit Ethernet was starting to become mass-market and the price had dropped compared to SRP. Gigabit Ethernet had by then also implemented jumboframes. Netnod said they were willing to implement Gigabit Ethernet, but wanted 8 operators to promise to sign up to cover the costs. In the mean time some operators went off and created an alternative, Ethernet based IX, SOL-IX. However, Netnod managed to get their 8 customers quite fast and built out Gigabit Ethernet at all cities. For 2 years, the old FDDI exchange (that was still operational) was connected to the Ethernet switches, but by the end of 2002, all SRP and FDDI equipment had been migrated away from.
Today the Netnod platform consists of single chassis Gigabit Ethernet switches at each location. Operators are connected with either 1Gigabit or 10Gigabit Ethernet, with a clear trend of operators moving to 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections.