MAE-West was an

Internet exchange point Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of IP networking, allowing participant Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are generally located at places with preexisting ...

located on the west coast of the United States in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, in the South

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was established in November, 1994. Its name officially stands for "Metropolitan Area Exchange, West", although it was a humorous reference to the name of the actress

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

and to the original MAE in the

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

metro area, which was thereafter known as "MAE-East." The exchange was a dual FDDI ring, bridged between two locations, one in downtown San Jose, operated by

Metropolitan Fiber Systems MFS Communications Company, Inc. (Metropolitan Fiber Systems) was a competitive local exchange carrier that owned and operated local network access facilities installed in and around major U.S. cities and several major European cities. MFS also po ...

(MFS) and catering principally to smaller networks, and the second operated by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Moffett Field Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an Local government in California#Counties, unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States, ...

, to the northwest, and catering principally to larger networks, since it had annual terms (rather than the monthly terms and

Service level agreement A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a service provider and a customer. Particular aspects of the service – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed between the service provider and the service user. T ...

available at the MFS location) and more restrictive access policies. The MFS side was constructed by Steven Feldman, and the NASA side by Bobby Cates and Lance Tatman. Its San Jose facility was housed in the

Market Post Tower Tower 55 (formerly the Market Post Tower; also known as the Gold Building or simply 55 South Market) is a 15-story building at the corner of South Market Street and Post Street in downtown San Jose, California. Built in 1985 as the Market Post Tow ...

. Built in 1985, Market Post Tower, also known as the Gold Building, is a 15-story building located at 55 South Market at the corner Post Street in downtown San Jose, California. According to its website, “MAE West is interconnected with the Ames Internet Exchange, operated by NASA at the

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

. This connection is currently two OC3c circuits directly between the

FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is a standard for data transmission in a local area network. It uses optical fiber as its standard underlying physical medium, although it was also later specified to use copper cable, in which case it m ...

switches at each end.” In the 1990s, MAE-West was operated by

MCI Worldcom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...

and was the second-busiest exchange point on the internet, handling, by some estimates, as much as 40% of the nation's Internet traffic.

References

External links

Who's MAE, and why is she so slow?
Internet exchange points in the United States History of the Internet {{network-stub

See also

References

External links