Ohio Internet Exchange (IX)

In March 2020, I volunteered to become a part of the Ohio Internet Exchange aka Ohio IX Technical Steering Committee. If you haven’t heard of the Ohio IX before it is an Internet exchange (IX), also known as an Internet exchange point (IXP) or peering point. IX/IXPs allow Internet transport carriers, Internet service providers (ISPs), mobile and content providers, and other organizations with great connectivity needs to exchange Internet traffic inexpensively through a common switch fabric usually on a settlement-free basis (i.e. no usage charges). Ohio IX reduces the portion of an organization’s Internet transit traffic that must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit delivery cost of their service. The increased number of paths learned through Ohio IX improves routing efficiency and fault-tolerance. By connecting to Ohio IX, members can peer with the route servers provided by Ohio IX, or with any other member, provided the members in question have reached a bilateral peering agreement. There are three types of connectivity options into or through the Ohio IX Fabric:

Multilateral Peering: Traffic exchanged directly between members over shared exchange fabric utilizing Ohio IX route servers

Bilateral Peering: Traffic exchanged directly between two members of the exchange over the shared exchange fabric

Direct Access: Connect directly into content you specify.

There are two levels of membership to the Ohio IX, associate ($500/yr) and senior ($1000/yr). Senior membership requires your own Autonomous System Number (ASN) and requires connecting to the exchange with either a 1G or 10G port. 40G and 100G ports are available as well but additional charges apply. Associate members can participate by connecting to the exchange but are not required to and they have limited voting rights.

The work I’ve been doing has been pretty interesting! I have been getting my hands dirty standing up some Linux hosts for management and monitoring, not to mention working with other technical peers to keep the network running. I am new so have a lot to learn and more work to do in order to feel like I’m pulling my weight, but it’s been a great experience thus far!

If you are interested in learning more about the Ohio IX, reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter (links for both at the right) or email info@ohioix.org.

I hope to see you as a new member soon!