Connectivity Providers Database

Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 17:55:33 +1300 From: Joe Abley <jabley@patho.gen.nz> To: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Major asia pacific public exchange points On Tue, Oct 26, 1999 at 03:34:31PM -0700, Sean Donelan wrote: > What are the, or are there any, major international public exchange > points in the Asia-Pacific region? In New Zealand, there are three: NZIX, colocated with the University of Waikato at Hamilton. The original NZ peering point (UoW were the first to bring the internet here thanks to an NSF grant and a 9k6 sync subrate circuit to NASA, which is rumoured to still be live). Runs on ethernet. WIX (Wellington Internet eXchange), a distributed ethernet-based exchange on CityLink infrastructure. CityLink is a metro fibre network in Wellington run by Capital Network Holdings Ltd (CNHL). APE (Auckland Peering eXchange), an ethernet exchange located in the 48th floor of Auckland's Sky Tower. Believed to be the highest public IX (above ground level) in the world, or at least as far as we've heard :) WIX probably carries the most peering traffic today. NZIX is decreasing in significance, although it is still a focal point for a couple of providers' networks. The APE is rather new, and still gaining support from participants, although useful traffic is being exchanged today. To my knowledge, CLEAR Communications, IBM NZ (AT&T global network), IHUG (TIG outside NZ) Telecom NZ, Telstra NZ and Voyager (OzEmail/UUNet) all operate equipment located outside New Zealand, manage their own international networks and participate at one or more of these exchange points. Peering points have played an important role in the NZ internet -- because of our geographic isolation, and the relative scarcity of international under-sea cable capacity, being able to reach any other internet-connected device within NZ without your packets leaving the country is something that people here take very much for granted. Joe