Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

TOPIC: Science & Tech

Context- The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) has written to TRAI asking that both telecom service providers and internet service providers mandatorily connect to at least one internet exchange point.

Concept-

• This comes after the regulator noted that while a wide distribution of internet exchange points (IXPs) is needed for the entire internet ecosystem and to encourage broadband penetration in India, the proliferation of IXPs remains poor.
• However, telecom operators Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio disagreed with NIXI, stating that telecom service providers (TSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) should be given the freedom to choose which IXP to join.

Internet Exchange Points:

• An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical location through which Internet infrastructure companies such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Service Providers connect with each other.
• These locations exist on the “edge” of different networks, and allow network providers to share transit outside their own network.
• 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.
• Organizationally, most IXPs are each independent not-for-profit associations of their constituent participating networks (that is, the set of ISPs which participate at that IXP).
• The primary alternative to IXPs is private peering, where ISPs directly connect their networks to each other.
• The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than going through one or more third-party networks. The primary advantages of direct interconnection are cost, latency, and bandwidth.

What is NIXI?

• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a not-for-profit organization under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 working since 2003 for spreading the internet infrastructure to the citizens of India through the following activities:
  • Internet Exchanges through which the internet data is exchanged amongst ISP’s, Data Centers and CDNs.
  • .IN Registry, managing and operation of .IN country-code domain and .भारत IDN domain for India.
  • IRINN, managing and operating Internet protocol (IPv4/IPv6).