Re: Internet Exchange Questions

[Bill Woodcock <woody () zocalo net>]

    > Is there a need for additional IXs or are there too
    > many today and some should be consolidated or shut
    > down altogether? If there is a need for new IXs, where
    > do you put them? Who decides where to build a new IX
    > and how do you get service providers to show up there
    > once it is built?

I know of 323 IXes today.
http://www.pch.net/documents/data/exchange-points/ep-in-addrs.xls

In my experience, there are a few states that local exchange "markets" go
through:

First, no exchange, or something which claims to be one but isn't.

    Then, inspiration strikes someone, and:

Second, there's an exchange, and life is good.

    Then, idiocy strikes someone else, they determine that the existence
    of an exchange "validates the market" for exchange services in that
    region, and:

Third, multiple exchanges spring up in the same area, tearing apart the
switch fabric and ruining the economic reason for peering in the first
place.

    Then, people grow to understand the market, and:

Fourth, the different exchange-like services differentiate sufficiently
that people can use peering-oriented exchanges principally for peering,
and transit-oriented exchanges principally for transit.

                                -Bill