RE: Multihoming by IP Layer Address Rewriting (MILAR)

[Iljitsch van Beijnum <iljitsch@muada.com>]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2001, RJ Atkinson wrote:

> At 05:05 04/09/01, Iljitsch van Beijnum wrote:
> >I know internet exchanges are out of vogue in the US, but they are a
> >reality in Europe. The AMS-IX carries 3 Gbit/s of traffic, compared to 300
> >Mbit for the New York Internet Exchange, even though bandwidth is a lot
> >cheaper in the US than in NL. The number of people that live in The
> >Netherlands is comparable to that in the NYC metro area. (But then the
> >AMS-IX is one of the four to six main exchange points in Europe.)

>         The above is not a good comparison.

Granted, it shows only part of the picture.

> Virtually no
> international links terminate in NYC metro (most US-side termination
> of trans-Atlantic links is in/near southern NJ instead).  Lots of
> international links terminate in AMS metro area.

Chicken/egg: why would all those lines that come in in cities like
Noordwijk, Domburg and Alkmaar go to Amsterdam? Because all the ISPs are
there. And why are all the ISPs there? Because the AMS-IX is there. (Well,
ok, the fact that some people fail to notice that there is more to NL than
Amsterdam probably has something to do with it too.)

I seem to remember many lines going directly into NYC in the past, though.

>         AMS-IX, LINX, MAE-E, MAE-W, and Pennsauken NAP are all viable
> exchanges (and will be long into the future) because they facilitate
> *regional* and *international* interconnects, not merely metro
> interconnects.

Apart from being a regional/international exchange, the AMS-IX also
functions as a national exchange. In the US, it makes sense to transport
traffic a few hundred kilometers to a large exchange point. In Europe,
that often means you are in another country, which makes lines more
expensive and harder to get. So every country has at least one national
exchange, and not connecting to that exchange is very bad for business
for ISPs.

Look at the Brussels IX: an exchange 200 km from two of the largest
echanges in the continent wouldn't have a chance in the US, while in a
small country like Belgium it still carries 400 Mbps and has 45 members.

Real metro interconnects haven't surfaced here either.

Iljitsch