The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) is an
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 ...
-based neutral
peering point
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 ...
running over the
CityLink
CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Australia, linking the Tullamarine, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other works. In 1996, Transurban was awarded the contract to augment two exi ...
metropolitan network in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
, New Zealand. It is part of CityLink's
ExchangeNET group of peering exchanges.
The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) was established to allow entities connected to the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington to send traffic directly to and from each other rather than via their
ISP
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 private ...
. This activity is known as
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 ...
.
This provides improvements in speed as traffic travels directly between the parties and reduces load on the network by reducing the need for traffic to be duplicated through one or more intermediate ISP
routers. In some cases this also avoids traffic being routed "out of town", or incurring ISP's traffic charges.
Each connected entity could add specific details of networks they want to talk to directly to their routers (static routes and bilateral
BGP
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 mak ...
sessions) but this quickly becomes an administrative headache as adds, changes and deletions become time-consuming and error prone if more than a few peering sessions are configured.
The Wellington Internet Exchange provides two route servers which contain routing details for each of the participants. This simplifies peering enormously for most exchange users.
The WIX has been described as a world-first for a distributed metropolitan Ethernet-based Internet exchange. WIX was also the first internet exchange to connect an
OpenFlow-controlled device to the public internet.
'NZ scores first OpenFlow controlled connection to an IX'
NZNOG, Tuesday 11 Dec 2012 accessed Friday 28 Dec 2012
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
{{reflist
External links
Wellington Internet Exchange
Internet exchange points in New Zealand