Detroit is the latest major U.S. city to establish an Internet Exchange Point (IXP). The IXP, called DET-IX will bring “faster speeds, more bandwidth and lower costs” for service providers across the state. The DET-IX launches with nine initial members, including: 123.Net, A2 Hosting, Active Solutions Group, Clear Rate Communications, MojoHost, Evolved Servers, LightSpeed Communications, ManagedWay, and Nexcess.net.
“The Detroit Internet Exchange is the culmination of our efforts over the past several years to ensure best in class connectivity in the metro Detroit region,” said Dan Irvin, CEO at 123.Net which houses the DET-IX. “Detroit now has the infrastructure to consider itself among the best connected locations on the planet. DET-IX offers numerous benefits to Michigan’s established business community and will help attract and retain new tech businesses. It’s an important milestone in the ongoing development of our state’s high-tech economy.”
While other major IXPs charge for interconnection, DET-IX is providing 1G and 10G switch ports free of charge. DET-IX is available at 123.Net‘s 100,000 square feet carrier-neutral data center building located in Southfield, Michigan.
“ISPs, carriers and content providers will benefit by reduced costs, lower latency and better throughput to other DET-IX members,” said Ryan Duda, 123.net CTO. “Major metropolitan areas have been establishing IXP for years. It’s now our turn to improve Internet connectivity and stability for Michigan.”
The DET-IX switching fabric consists of multiple high capacity switches interconnected together. DET-IX members connect via 1G or a 10G port. In turn, the members can pass traffic directly between one another, rather than purchasing through a third party provider. Further, the traffic stays local via the IXP as opposed to being routed in another major city.
Detroit’s data
Irvin noted that only organizations with an ASN (autonomous system number) are eligible to participate on the DET-IX. It’s estimated that Michigan has hundreds of eligible members who can benefit from the free exchange. By comparison, one of the world’s largest Internet exchanges is AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) with approximately 700 members.
Prior to the opening of the new DET-IX, much of Detroit’s data had to be routed through other exchanges. In most cases, that meant Chicago. Data from one Detroit business often went through Chicago before being re-routed back to another Detroit location creating unnecessary cost and delays.
123Net, which houses the DET-IX currently operates a 100Gbps+ IP network connected to multiple global transit carriers, including Cogent, Comcast, GTT, Level 3, Savvis, TeliaSonera, Verizon, XO Communications and others. Four metro fiber rings and long-haul fiber networks span 2,700 route miles and cover 70 nodes across Michigan.
