PacketExchange is a British multinational network services provider based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Founded in 2002 by Jason Velody and Kieron O'Brien, both supported by Nigel Titley, Giles Heron, and Katie Snowball as the founding team, its network connected 45

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 ...

across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

over a private backbone consisting primarily of multiple

10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous Eth ...

links over dedicated wavelengths on a fiber-optic mesh. PacketExchange's services include the Ethernet Private Line (EPL or EVPL), wide-area peering, community of interest networking, content delivery network, single and multi-homed

Internet transit Internet transit is the service of allowing network traffic to cross or "transit" a computer network, usually used to connect a smaller Internet service provider (ISP) to the larger Internet. Technically, it consists of two bundled services: * The ...

, and dedicated

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

. The company also offers expertise in peering, or

BGP Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous system (Internet), autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. BGP is classified as a path-vector ...

, and infrastructure to support

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

Company history

The company was founded to act as a wide-area Internet Exchange Point and application delivery service provider. The company's original business model was to use

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 198 ...

and MPLS technology to build a distributed Internet Exchange Point as well as to provide point-to-point Ethernet connectivity. Using the model, over 140 networks peered traffic over the PacketExchange network. The

commoditization In business literature, commoditization is defined as the process by which goods that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of attributes (uniqueness or brand) end up becoming simple commodities in the eyes of the market or consu ...

of the IP market forced the company to evolve. In January 2005, PacketExchange acquired and integrated XchangePoint. In October 2007, PacketExchange was hired by the rock band

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

for the internet release of their album '' In Rainbows''. In February 2008, Rick Mace became the new CEO, and PacketExchange secured an additional $12 million investment. The company added two network points of presence during 2008: one in the Telx colocation facility in New York, and another in Singapore. In January 2010, Mzima Networks announced that its network assets were acquired by PacketExchange. Grant Kirkwood became PacketExchange's CTO. The two companies merged customer bases and operations, resulting in a combined company with an extensive global network footprint that leverages its 10 Gigabit backbone to provide global Ethernet private line services, MPLS and VPLS networking, IP transit, and

peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-and ...

services.

Mzima Networks

The ''Mzima Network'' was a

data network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

and

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP h ...

(IP) computer network extending across the

, and

. The word ''Mzima'' means “alive” in the Kiswahili language. The network was started in California in 2001 by Mzima Corporation, N.A, which acquired several companies with Internet networks. In 2005, the Mzima Network became the first all-

backbone through a partnership with

Force10 Networks Dell Force10 (formerly nCore Networks, Force10 Networks), was a United States company that developed and marketed 10 Gigabit and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches for computer networking to corporate, educational, and governmental customers. It had ...

. In 2006, the Mzima IP backbone network expanded into Europe, providing connectivity for content providers, enterprise companies, and international

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

carriers. The fault-tolerant designed backbone network connected Tier 1 network carriers and network providers that engage in

private peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-and ...

. It incorporated the

Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) is an approved telecommunications networking standard, IEEE 802.1Qay-2009. PBB-TE adapts Ethernet technology to carrier class transport networks. It is based on the layered VLAN tags and MAC-in ...

(PBB-TE) standard to adapt Ethernet technology to carrier networks. PBB-TE technology was incorporated into communications networking equipment by companies such as

Ciena Corporation Ciena Corporation is an American telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier based in Hanover, Maryland. The company has been described by ''The Baltimore Sun'' as the "world's biggest player in optical connectivity." T ...

. This Ethernet technology provided fast re-route capabilities, allowing optimization of unused network capacity. Since it provided an alternative to Tier 1 service providers and multi-homed networks, the Mzima Network claimed route-optimized transit and private peering. In January 2010, Mzima Networks announced its network assets were acquired by PacketExchange. The two companies merged customer bases and operations.

Acquisition

In May 2011,

Global Telecom & Technology GTT Communications, Inc. (GTT), formerly Global Telecom and Technology, is a multinational telecommunications and internet service provider company with headquarters in McLean, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware. GTT operates a Tier 1 IP ne ...

(GTT) acquired PacketExchange for $20 million in cash.

References

PacketExchange, October 21, 2008; "PacketExchange Launches Global Network Services in Singapore".

Reuters, May 29, 2008; "PacketExchange Launches Services at Telx in New York".

* [https://archive.today/20130121125412/http://www.digital50.com/news/items/PR/2007/10/11/UKTH081/packetexchange-brings-new-radiohead-album-to-fans-around-the-globe-in-record-time Digital50, October 11, 2007; "PacketExchange Brings New Radiohead Album to Fans Around the Globe in Record Time".]
Telecommunications Magazine. May 2005. PacketExchange: without peers?
* * * *

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Packetexchange Internet exchange points in the United Kingdom Internet service providers of the United Kingdom Companies established in 2002 2002 establishments in England

Company history

Mzima Networks

Acquisition

See also

References

External links