Federal Internet Exchange (FIX) points were policy-based network
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 where U.S. federal agency networks, such as the
National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET),
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
Science Network (NSN),
Energy Sciences Network
The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is a high-speed computer network serving United States Department of Energy (DOE) scientists and their collaborators worldwide. It is managed by staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
More than ...
(ESnet), and
MILNET
In computer networking, MILNET (fully Military Network) was the name given to the part of the ARPANET internetwork designated for unclassified United States Department of Defense traffic.DEFENSE DATA NETWORK NEWSLETTEDDN-NEWS 26 6 May 1983
MILNE ...
were interconnected.
Two FIXes were established in June 1989 under the auspices of the Federal Engineering Planning Group (FEPG). FIX East, at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
in
College Park, and FIX West, at the
NASA 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) labora ...
in
Mountain View,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The existence of the FIXes allowed the
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
to be phased out in mid-1990. FIX West was eventually expanded to become
MAE-West
MAE-West was an Internet exchange point located on the west coast of the United States in Silicon Valley, in the South San Francisco Bay Area in California. It was established in November, 1994. Its name officially stands for "Metropolitan Area Ex ...
, one of the NSF-supported
Network Access Points.
See also
*
Commercial Internet eXchange
The Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) was an early interexchange point that allowed the free exchange of TCP/IP traffic, including commercial traffic, between ISPs. It was an important initial effort toward creating the commercial Internet that w ...
(CIX)
*
Network Access Point (NAP)
*
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 ...
(IXP)
References
History of the Internet
Internet exchange points in the United States
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