[165146] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Vancouver IXP - VanTX - BCNet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher Morrell)
Tue Aug 20 23:02:28 2013
In-Reply-To: <CA+K1SUzuzjQ78xMcMvX-oWWMJ3Gdexb-CoGpqucHcAotVdCAzQ@mail.gmail.com>
From: Christopher Morrell <christopher.morrell.nanog@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:02:06 -0400
To: Jonathan Stewart <jonathan.stewart@gmail.com>
Cc: North American Network Operators' Group <nanog@nanog.org>,
Allan MacGillivray <allan.macgillivray@cira.ca>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
The old generation QIX (in Montreal) has been around a long time as an IXP w=
here commercial players have been present. It was managed and operated by RI=
SQ (a research network) but most of the members were commercial.=20
The new generation of QIX is managed much like TorIX and continues to be ope=
rated by RISQ. There really isn't much new about the QIX other than how it i=
s managed. It has always welcomed commercial players.=20
In Winnipeg, isn't there also the WPGIX? Do you have two competing IXPs in W=
innipeg?
=20
On 2013-08-20, at 16:42, Jonathan Stewart <jonathan.stewart@gmail.com> wrote=
:
> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 12:05 AM, Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> wrote:
>=20
>>> As you may know CIRA has been working with groups across Canada to
>>> establish new IXPs.
>>=20
>> wow! i thought there were a lot of ixps, torix, vantx, ...
> Canada is geographically enormous. Long-haul transit is therefore costly,
> and controlled by few big players. Not good for local ISPs.
>=20
> You named 2 IXPs, and only got one right. A year ago, there were two
> active: TORIX in Toronto, and OTTIX in Ottawa. Ottawa is too close to
> Toronto to have an impact, so OTTIX has remained small. Having only 2 ope=
n
> IXPs, 400 km apart in a country 5000 km wide is not good enough.
>=20
> Since then, QIX in Montreal has opened up from a research-only IXP, to a
> neutral peering facility. MBIX in Winnipeg has started, and YYCIX in
> Calgary is up and running as well. Vancouver is still lacking.
>=20
> are these open, neutral, ixps, a la six etc? or big players trying to
>> save the internet from itself?
> I can speak for MBIX in Winnipeg, I'm part of the group working to get it
> fully operational.
>=20
> We are open, neutral. Any AS can become a member, and we are run openly by=
> a board, elected by the members of the exchange.
>=20
> We have route servers, and direct peering is permitted as well. Costs are=
> yearly, per-member, and low: $1200/yr. CIRA's donations have been pivotal=
> in kickstarting this exchange with low cash costs. A couple of local ISPs
> have also donated to got this project started.
>=20
> Currently, the aforementioned established big players are not at all
> interested in our exchange, they don't talk to us. Only exception is
> Hurricane Electric, who recently joined, dropping wholesale bandwidth cost=
s
> in Winnipeg *dramatically*.
>=20
> would some of the *local* providers in the areas who actually use the
>> cira ixen care to report on the experience?
> I don't count as an operator, but so far, the connected members are
> learning much more about BGP and traffic flows, and interconnecting in way=
s
> never before possible in Winnipeg.
>=20
> BTW, in Winnipeg we still have the problem of cross-continent traffic path=
s
> to send data across the street. Worst case is something like this:
> Winnipeg--Chicago--Toronto--Vancouver--Calgary--Winnipeg. That's a 15,000
> km round trip. MBIX can help with that.
>=20
> Our website for the curious:http://www.mbix.ca/
>=20
> --=20
> Jonathan
