I was having this discussion with someone recently on possible software to manage an IXP. Lately, IXP Manager has become the de-facto choice for managing IX. It’s a good tool. Nick and INEX team has built a fantastic open-source tool. But I still feel it’s a bit overloaded for a small 1-2 DC IX operation.
If I have to set up a small to mid-size IX, I would rather do that with arouteserver instead of IXP Manager as I did in case of BharatIX in Mumbai (until it shutdown!
Background Lately, NIXI has been making a bit of news in the Indian peering ecosystem. NIXI for those who may not be aware is the National Internet Exchange of India. It was founded in 2003 with the idea to provide inter-connection layer 2 peering fabric for local Indian ISPs. They were supposed to ensure domestic Indian traffic is exchanged within India and not outside of India. In my previous post, I did cover how that is not true for now.
Hello world from Gujarat! This is my 3rd visit to Gujarat. :)
Coming to today’s post: I have noticed ISPs doing really crazy things to maximise traffic on peerings and IXPs. Some of those are bad and some are very bad. Additionally I came across this comment and thought to put this quick post.
Example of some bad ways to increase IXP traffic:
Using upstream’s ASN to keep AS path shorter (yes, believe me I have seen that!
I am in Chiang Mai, Thailand for APNIC 48 conference. Earlier today attended APIX meeting where many IX members from Asian community gave an update including NIXI i.e National Internet Exchange of India.
As per the update NIXI now allows content players to peer at the exchange. NIXI earlier had a strict requirement of telecom license for anyone to peer but as of now it allows anyone with IP address and AS number to be part of the exchange just like all other exchanges.
It’s kind of fun times in India with many IX’es showing up and now NIXI finally removing their traffic wise charge.
I came across this email which they sent to their member networks recently:
From: I X <[ix@nixi.in](mailto:ix@nixi.in)\> Sent: Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:48:31 GMT+0530 To: "members " <[members@nixi.in](mailto:members@nixi.in)\> Cc: "[ceo@nixi.in](mailto:ceo@nixi.in)" <[ceo@nixi.in](mailto:ceo@nixi.in)\> Subject: Change in Data Transfer Charges (X-Y) Dear Members, In reference to the Board's direction to reduce the current data transfer (X-Y) charges from Re.