LINX USA, as the new Internet Exchange is called will be run by London Internet Exchange (LINX) and be closely modeled after their Exchange in London, currently one of the largest neutral exchanges for Internet traffic worldwide. Carrier-neutral colocation provider EvoSwitch will house the first Point-of-Presence (PoP) for LINX USA in its WDC1 data center in Manassas, VA.
EvoSwitch’s WDC1 data center in North Virginia is the first of three data centers in the region to reach an agreement with LINX for the initial USA footprint as a multi-site Internet Exchange (IXP).
Open-IX
The announcement was made at a time when Open-IX, an Internet community-derived effort to improve the landscape of Internet Peering in the United States, is looking to endorse data centers and IXPs to encourage and support neutral, public peering in the USA. Both EvoSwitch and LINX expect to receive an early endorsement and be first to market in northern Virginia, one of the United States’ most fiber network dense regions.
“EvoSwitch approached us early November 2012 with the idea to bring the powerful IXP model that LINX represents to the USA,” said John Souter, CEO of the London Internet Exchange. “Out of those conversations, and in close collaboration with Open-IX since it was formed early 2013, we are now close to launching LINX USA in north Virginia. There is a strong demand for a change in the way networks interconnect across the United States. Neutral, multi-site IXPs where peers are members with a clear say in running the Exchange as stakeholders, provide real choice. They add resilience in the network, reduce latency and ultimately lower the cost of exchanging Internet traffic, which in the end stimulates growth which benefits all.”
EvoSwitch
“The North American market for network interconnection services has developed very differently from Europe,” said Eric Boonstra, CEO of EvoSwitch, a provider of sustainable data center services that also has a presence in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “In Europe, carrier-neutral data centers work closely with neutral IXPs to provide a layer of transparent peering services that are available from multiple, competing data centers in the same market. We feel that we are ideally positioned to leverage our partnership with LINX here in the US. Over time, it will provide our network and content provider customers with real choice on where to colocate, because their peering needs can be met from anywhere in any given metro market.”
The announcement also comes just after Digital Realty Trust has introduced a similar neutral Internet peering initiative in the North American market. Digital Realty Trust’s peering initiative is called Digital Open Internet Exchange, a model that is planned for roll-out worldwide but will initially take place in the same place where LINX USA is starting, in the Northern Virginia area.
The London Internet Exchange (LINX) provides Internet peering services and public policy representation to over 475 members across 58 countries. The LINX London network currently handles over 1.6 Tb/sec of peak traffic and covers more than 80% of the global routing table.
