We will now look at the design of an
internet exchange point. The exchange
point core as we've already mentioned is
an Ethernet switch and it must be
a managed switch, in other words, where
the operator can login to the switch,
configure features on different ports
and manage the performance and behavior
of the switch itself. It must have
reasonable security features in fact
Euro IX has documented typical details
they would expect an Ethernet switch for
an exchange part to have the Ethernet
switch has superseded all other types of
network devices for an internet exchange
point these days a small starter
exchange part would have a small managed
12 or 24 port Gigabit Ethernet switch
there's really no purpose or anything to
be gained for going with anything
smaller than this at the other end of
the scale were now looking even at
switches that can handle high densities
of 10 Gigabit Ethernet 40 Gigabit
Ethernet and even hundred gigabyte the
net with 400 gigabit ethernet now being
talked about at the top end of the range
each isp participating in the exchange
point brings a router to the IXP
location note however that with
increasing availability of fiber access
rsps are now connecting directly to the
IXP without provisioning a dedicated
router at the exchange part location
this router border router for the isp
needs an ethernet port to connect to the
exchange part switch and a wine port to
connect back to the isp back board and
of course the router needs to be able to
run BGP the IXP switch is located in one
equipment rack dedicated to the exchange
part the rack could also contain other
operational equipment that's used by the
internet exchange if the participant
ISPs are bringing in routers these are
always located in neighboring
Jason wrecks most exchange parts try and
avoid having a member equipment
co-located in the same rack as the IXP
switch and this allows the exchange part
room to expand as the exchange part
grows copper connections usually
unshielded twisted-pair are made 400
megabits or one gigabit connections
fiber is used for one gigabit and higher
speeds to connect to the switch for the
peering setup each participant needs to
run BGP they need their own autonomous
system number and it needs to be a
public autonomous system number not a
private ASM public EAS numbers are
readily available from all the
registries and of course an a s number
will be assigned because it means the
participant will be using BGP to talk to
multiple other participants and indeed
to their own upstream providers as well
each participant configures external BGP
directly with other participants at the
exchange point.
They may choose to peer with all participants
or peer with a subset of participants.
The choice is entirely up to the participant.
© Produced by Philip Smith and the Network Startup Resource Center, through the University of Oregon.
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