Amsterdam Internet Exchange

Infobox Internet exchange point
name = Amsterdam Internet Exchange


image_width = 220px
full_name = Amsterdam Internet Exchange
abbreviation = AMS-IX
founded = 1997 (unofficially 1994)
location = Amsterdam, Netherlands
members = [https://www.ams-ix.net/connected/ 303]
ports = [https://www.ams-ix.net/connected/ 569]
website = [http://www.ams-ix.net/ www.ams-ix.net]
peak_in = [https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/ 503.574 Gb/s]
peak_out = [https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/ 503.585 Gb/s]
daily_in = [https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/ 336.887 Gb/s]
daily_out = [https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/ 336.665 Gb/s]

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) is an Internet exchange point situated in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. AMS-IX is a fast growing, non-profit, neutral and independent peering point. The AMS-IX is the largest Internet Exchange in the world, when measured both by number of members and by traffic. During 2007 the overall system availability was over 99.999%, and ended the year with 1.7 Terabits/s capacity over 469 ports.

History

In February 1994, a layer 2 shared infrastructure, used between academic institutes, was connected with CERN to exchange traffic. Other internet service providers were allowed to connect and the name AMS-IX was first used. In 1997, the AMS-IX Association was founded by twenty of the connected internet service providers and carriers.

In 2002, the Netherlands Internet Exchange was founded as an alternative or backup for the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. [cite web
title = NL-ix News
work = [https://www.nl-ix.net/ www.nl-ix.net]
publisher = Netherlands Internet Exchange
url = http://www.nl-ix.net/news.php
accessdate = 2008-09-11 ]

As of October 1, 2008, AMS-IX connected 303 members on 569 portscite web
title = AMS-IX - Connected Parties
work = [https://www.ams-ix.net/ www.ams-ix.net]
publisher = Amsterdam Internet Exchange
url = https://www.ams-ix.net/connected/
accessdate = 2008-10-01 ] and the all time peak of incoming traffic was 482.110 Gbit/s and of outgoing traffic 481.568 Gbit/s.cite web
title = AMS-IX - Traffic
work = [https://www.ams-ix.net/ www.ams-ix.net]
publisher = Amsterdam Internet Exchange
date = 2008-10-01
url = https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/
accessdate = 2008-10-01 ] This makes the Amsterdam Internet Exchange the largest internet exchange in the world, when measured by number of connected members and by internet traffic, before the Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange [ [http://www.de-cix.net/info/traffic.html Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange Traffic] . Retrieved on 2008-02-10.] and the London Internet Exchange. [ [https://www.linx.net/pubtools/trafficstats.html LINX Aggregated Traffic Statistics] . Retrieved on 2008-02-10.]

Points of presence

AMS-IX members are able to connect at six locations, all located within Amsterdam:
* SARA (Science Park Amsterdam, Oost/Watergraafsmeer)
* NIKHEF (Science Park Amsterdam, Oost/Watergraafsmeer)
* GlobalSwitch (Slotervaart)
* TelecityRedbus (Amsterdam Zuidoost)
* euNetworks (Amsterdam Zuid)
* Equinix AM1 (Amsterdam Zuidoost) ("fall 2008"cite web
title = Equinix and AMS-IX, the World’s Largest Single Metro Area Internet Exchange, Announce Interconnection and Peering Partnership
url = http://www.equinix.com/press/press/2008/04_23_08a.php
publisher = Equinix
date = 2008-04-23
accessdate = 2008-05-22] )

Via high speed VPN links access to the shared LAN of the AMS-IX is also possible from several locations in the Netherlands. Some regional peering projects and telco's offer these services. [ [http://www.ams-ix.net/connecting/partners.html Partnerpage AMS-IX site] visited on 1 June 2008]

Network

The AMS-IX platform is continually evolving due to its rapid growth in traffic and number of connected member ports. Currently it is using a redundant hub-spoke architecture using a core switch and multiple edge switches.cite web
title = AMS-IX topology
url = http://www.ams-ix.net/technical/topology.html
accessdate = 2008-05-22 ] This double-star topology brings the advantage of being able to perform maintenance on the network without any impact on customer traffic, and to anticipate on fiber and equipment problems by (automatically) switching to the backup topology as soon as a failure in one of the active components occurs. The active switching topology star is determined by means of the VSRP protocol.

AMS-IX members connect to the platform with 10, 100 Mbit/s, 1 or 10 Gbit/s ethernet connections, or using multiple gigabit or 10 gigabit aggregated ports, utilizing the 802.3ad standard. Gigabit ethernet and lower speed ports are directly connected to Foundry Networks BigIron 15000 or RX-8 network switches. 10 Gigabit member ports are connected to Glimmerglass Systems photonic switches which maintain an optical connection to the stub switch on the currently active side of the network, following the VSRP protocol. For each 10 Gigabit port there is an active and a backup stub switch, for which BigIron RX-8, RX-16 or NetIron MLX-16 switches are used. The core consists of two Foundry NetIron MLX-32 switches, to which all edge switches are connected using 10 gigabit aggregated connections and WDM technology.

Connected servers

Since August 1, 2003, a mirror of the K-root nameserver is available on AMS-IX and its backup NL-ix. [ [http://k.root-servers.org/nodes/ams-ix/ K-root Node Amsterdam] . RIPE NCC. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.]

In December 2007, Wikimedia Foundation and AMS-IX joined forces for the "good of the internet". AMS-IX provides a Gigabit Ethernet connection at no cost to Wikimedia's Amsterdam datacentre. [ [http://www.ams-ix.net/news/archive/2007/071212_Wikimedia_Press_Release.pdf Wikimedia Press Release] . Released on 7 December 2007.]

References

External links

* [http://www.ams-ix.net/ Amsterdam Internet Exchange] (official website)
* [https://www.ams-ix.net/connected/ Connected parties]
* [https://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/ Traffic statistics]