Connectivity Providers Database

Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 19:58:23 +0300 From: Brian Longwe <cto@nbi.ispkenya.com> To: Musandu <musandu@arcc.or.ke>, eaia@list.eaia.org, ixp-kenya@list.eaia.org Subject: RE: Future of the Exchange Point Message-ID: <NEBBLDHFKCGGMIHHLHIFCEIICAAA.cto@nbi.ispkenya.com> > I wish to request for some info from Brian and his team : > > (1) In the era of store and forward an exchange point would have brought > about massive savings for ISPs what are the kinds of financial savings > envisioned by the Exchange Point Implementator? The exchange point is not exactly a way of saving money (it has actually cost quite a bit to put in place) and shall continue to be an addition to the normal overhead an ISP bears for their communication. The main advantage is better quality of service, better traffic management, better infrastructure for developing local online communities (e.g. gaming, e-commerce, e-learning etc....) > (2) By what percentage does it improve the efficiency of ISP operations in > Kenya? It is hard to tell at this time (early days yet). We are going to be doing aggressive measurements and statistics to have a very clear picture of the impact. One definite impact so far is that one of the ISPs already has to upgrade their link, and right now it is only email traffic passing through! > (3) What are the improvements in bandwidth for audio and video packets? audio and video are both applications that are very sensitive to jitter and latency over tcp/ip. with adequate ISP bandwidth the exchange point will offer excellent conditions for local audio and video applications... > (4) What kinds of routers are talking - make and speed? presently the four ISPs are all using Cisco routers - 3 x Cisco 2501 and 1 x Cisco 2600 > (5) Does the arrangement limit ISPs to the purchase of Cisco only > or it is a fully Open and TCP/IP arrangement? The IXP is not "Cisco only", any router can be used at the IXP, Cisco IOS has been tried, tested and we have lots of experience with it. Any new routers coming on would need to be passed by the technical committee to establish whether the vendors implementation of BGP4 is industry standard and would harmonise with the rest of the peers at the exchange point. > (6) Could slower routers in the arrangement make it harder to > communicate - > What were the speed standards? In the near future more powerful players > will enter the ISP market who can buy faster technology. The design of the IXP is such that low end routers (like the 2500) can scale all the way up to full peering with over 60 ISPs. It is the design that is crucial, not the speed and capacity of the routers. Look at http://www.kixp.net/how.html > (7) Is Cisco helping with conditionalities, if so what are the > conditionalities? No, Cisco is not helping with conditionalities. The ISP Association, TESPOK, have discussed and decided what the criteria is, look it up at http://www.kixp.net/policy.html > (8) What is the legal frame work for being in the Exchange point, what is > the Contract between the Exchange Point members before a dispute arises? same as above.... > (9) In a country where international internet bandwidth is not sold > dynamically / on demand by the Telkom Kenya what will the benefits of the > exchange point be? Kenya has lacked a robust local infrastructure that will provide high speed, low latency and minimal jitter for real time, bandwidth intensive and heavy applications. The exchange point accomplishes this (and much more). The trick is not to compare it with the international bandwidth but to open oneself to all the new opportunities that are presented by such a medium. All I can say is "watch this space". There are a lot of creative, innovative Kenyans out there who have all kinds of ideas that can now work here at home because of the excellent "internetworking" that the exchange point offers. Regards, Brian <cto@nbi.ispkenya.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: ixp-kenya-unsubscribe@list.eaia.org For additional commands, e-mail: ixp-kenya-help@list.eaia.org