Wellington Internet Exchange
Encyclopedia
The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) is an Ethernet
-based neutral peering point running over the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington
, New Zealand
. It is part of CityLink's ExchangeNET group of peering exchanges.
The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) was established to allow entities connected to the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington to send traffic directly to and from each other rather than via their ISP
. This activity is known as peering
.
This provides improvements in speed as traffic travels directly between the parties and reduces load on the network by reducing the need for traffic to be duplicated through one or more intermediate ISP routers. In some cases this also avoids traffic being routed "out of town", or incurring ISP's traffic charges.
Each connected entity could add specific details of networks they want to talk to directly to their routers (static routes and bilateral BGP
sessions) but this quickly becomes an administrative headache as adds, changes and deletions become time consuming and error prone if more than a few peering sessions are configured.
The Wellington Internet Exchange provides two route servers which contain routing details for each of the participants. This simplifies peering enormously for most exchange users.
The WIX has been described as a world-first for a distributed metropolitan Ethernet-based Internet exchange.
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
-based neutral peering point running over the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It is part of CityLink's ExchangeNET group of peering exchanges.
The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) was established to allow entities connected to the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington to send traffic directly to and from each other rather than via their ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
. This activity is known as peering
Peering
In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network. The pure definition of peering is settlement-free or "sender keeps all," meaning that neither party pays the...
.
This provides improvements in speed as traffic travels directly between the parties and reduces load on the network by reducing the need for traffic to be duplicated through one or more intermediate ISP routers. In some cases this also avoids traffic being routed "out of town", or incurring ISP's traffic charges.
Each connected entity could add specific details of networks they want to talk to directly to their routers (static routes and bilateral BGP
Border Gateway Protocol
The Border Gateway Protocol is the protocol backing the core routing decisions on the Internet. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems . It is described as a path vector protocol...
sessions) but this quickly becomes an administrative headache as adds, changes and deletions become time consuming and error prone if more than a few peering sessions are configured.
The Wellington Internet Exchange provides two route servers which contain routing details for each of the participants. This simplifies peering enormously for most exchange users.
The WIX has been described as a world-first for a distributed metropolitan Ethernet-based Internet exchange.