The Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) is 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 ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, USA. Its switch fabric is centered at the
Westin Building
The Westin Building Exchange is a major telecommunications hub facility located downtown Seattle, Washington. The building was constructed in 1981 as the Westin Building, housing the corporate offices of Westin Hotels, which was then based in Sea ...
and extended to
KOMO Plaza, Sabey Intergate, and other locations.
The SIX is one of the most successful examples of neutral and independent
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 ...
points, created as a free exchange point originally sponsored only by donations. The SIX is the most frequently cited model upon which other neutral Internet exchanges are based, and its financial and governance models are often cited as inspiration for other exchanges. It continues to run without any recurring charges to the participants and current major funding comes from one-time 10, 100, and 400
Gbit/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...
port fees, as well as from voluntary contributions from stakeholders. The SIX is a
501(c)(6) tax-exempt non-profit corporation.
As of April 21, 2023, there are 364 networks connected to the SIX advertising at least 194,000 (143,000 IPv4, 51,000 IPv6) unique
Border Gateway Protocol
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. BGP is classified as a path-vector routing protocol, and it make ...
(BGP) routes. There are two
route server
A route server is a computer server that was originally developed by the Routing Arbiter project, with funding from the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States governme ...
s running the
Bird Internet routing daemon (BIRD).
Technology
The core of the SIX consists of
Arista Networks
Arista Networks (formerly Arastra) is an American computer networking company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company designs and sells multilayer network switches to deliver software-defined networking (SDN) for large datacenter ...
switches, with a 7808R3, 7512R, and 7508R at the Westin Building, a 7504R3 at KOMO Plaza, and a 7280SR-48C6 at Sabey Intergate.
Participants may connect to the SIX core using a 1 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, 40 Gbit/s, 100 Gbit/s, or 400 Gbit/s Ethernet connection (fiber) or to one of several extensions. Extensions are sponsored by
colocation facilities or
transport providers.
Both
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 ...
peering is available and encouraged at the SIX, with availability dependent on the peer.
Jumbo frame peering at 9000-byte
maximum transmission unit
In computer networking, the maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the size of the largest protocol data unit (PDU) that can be communicated in a single network layer transaction. The MTU relates to, but is not identical to the maximum frame size tha ...
(MTU) is available.
Extensions
The following is a list of SIX extensions:
* Archeo Futurus: Connects participants at H5 Data Centers Seattle.
*
Astound Broadband: Regional network.
* BSO/IX Reach: Worldwide WAN.
*
Equinix
Equinix, Inc. is an American multinational company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that specializes in Internet connection and data centers. The company is a leader in global colocation data center market share, with 240 data centers ...
:
PAIX SEA, which is a neutral Internet exchange point operated by Equinix in Seattle, Washington.
* Minnesota VoIP:
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
area.
* NOCIX:
North Kansas City
North Kansas City is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. It is also enclaved in Kansas City. Even though the name is similar to its larger counterpart, Kansas City, it is an independent municipality part of the Kansas City metropo ...
area.
* Ptera:
Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
area.
* Reliable Internet (Arrow Calgary):
Calgary area.
* Wholesail Networks: Regional network.
* Wowrack: Wowrack datacenter in
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located immediately to the south of Seattle. The population was 21,798 at the 2020 census.
Tukwila is a community of communities, with residents of many diverse origi ...
.
See also
*
List of Internet exchange points
This is a list of Internet exchange points ( IXPs). There are several sources for IXP locations, including Packet Clearing House, who have maintained the earliest list of IXPs, with global coverage since 1994. Also, Telegeography, PeeringDB and t ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.seattleix.net/
Internet exchange points in the United States
Network access
1997 establishments in Washington (state)