Internet Neutral Exchange (INEX) is an
Internet exchange located in the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
, operating three
VLAN
A virtual local area network (VLAN) is any broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in a computer network at the data link layer ( OSI layer 2).IEEE 802.1Q-2011, ''1.4 VLAN aims and benefits'' In this context, virtual, refers to a ph ...
s at
points of presence
A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or network interface point between communicating entities. A common example is an ISP point of presence, the local access point that allows users to connect to the Internet with their ...
in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
at Equinix DB1 -
Citywest
Citywest ( ga, Iarthar na Cathrach) is a suburban development on the southwestern periphery of Dublin, originally developed as a "business campus." It contains a large hotel, with a convention centre, a small shopping centre and a small but e ...
, BT - Citywest, Equinix DB2 (Formerly Data Electronics) - Kilcarbery Park,
Interxion
Interxion is a European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services. Founded in 1998 in the Netherlands, the firm was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 28 January 2011 until its acquisition by Dig ...
DUB1 and DUB2 - Park West and Equinix DB3 - Northwest Business Park, Ballycoolin and a separate exchange, INEX Cork, at CIX in Cork.
The system provides a modern
layer 2
The data link layer, or layer 2, is the second layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. This layer is the protocol layer that transfers data between nodes on a network segment across the physical layer. The data link layer p ...
ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...
switching network supporting
IPv4 and
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv ...
peerings on three VLANs, with supported access speeds of 1Gbit/s, 10Gbit/s and 100Gbit/s. Th
membership of INEXincludes most of the large/medium
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
s (ISPs) based in Ireland, a growing number of digital content providers, the Irish Government network, VoIP providers and mobile operators. There is an associate membership category for non-trafficking organisations that have an interest in networking within the Irish IP community.
''Internet Neutral Exchange Association Company Limited by Guarantee'' is incorporated as a
company limited by guarantee and is registered at the
Companies Registration Office in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
, No. 253804. Each of its members is entitled to vote at general meetings. INEX maintains an executive board of 7 people, elected from its member representatives, and all board members must resign after two consecutive years service. Board members may be re-elected.
History
Planning for INEX started in 1996 and it became operational in April 1997 with the backing of its four founding members;
EUnet Ireland,
HEAnet
HEAnet is the national education and research network of Ireland.
HEAnet's e-infrastructure services support approximately 210,000 students and staff (third-level) in Ireland, and approximately 800,000 students and staff (first and second-lev ...
,
Indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
and
Telecom Internet with the objective of locally exchanging
IP traffic between Irish-based ISPs, rather than using an external exchange or transit providers. As of October 2018, the Association had 103 full, 5 pro-bono, and 23 associate members.
In late 2019, a number of directors resigned over disagreements on the company's governance. A subsequent letter to members announced an outside consultant would be appointed to “undertake a root and branch review of Inex and its corporate structure”.
See also
*
Communications in Ireland
Telecommunications in Ireland operate in a regulated competitive market that provides customers with a wide array of advanced digital services. This article explores Ireland's telecommunications infrastructure including: fixed and mobile networks ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
- INEX Official site- INEX Public Traffic Statistics- Full and Associate Members- The History Project
Internet exchange points in Europe
Internet in Ireland