Linx upgrades infrastructure
Internet hub increases capacity to deal with growth in ISP membership and internet traffic
The London Internet Exchange (Linx) has upgraded its infrastructure to handle increasing internet traffic, which has grown 50 per cent in the past year.
Linx is owned by ISPs and delivers peering services to exchange internet traffic directly and cost-effectively.
However, membership has almost doubled in the past four years, from 120 suppliers to 240, while rising internet traffic is combined with the added pressure of new forms of content such as real-time applications and video streaming.
Linx chief technology officer Mike Hughes says three RX-16 series switches have been installed to increase speed and capacity.
‘What we are doing is ensuring the fast and cheap delivery of service to ISPs,’ he said.
‘In 1999, we processed 1Gbit/s of traffic, but that has grown to 120Gbit/s. Our infrastructure did not have sufficient ports or density to provide the bandwidth required by ISPs.’
Four years ago, Linx upgraded the infrastructure from 1Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s bandwidth, and two years ago it increased the number of 10Gbit/s ports per slot from one to four.
‘We have had an eight-fold increase in speed in the past four years, and expect the current infrastructure to last another two to three years,’ said Hughes.
Linx installed the new RX units from Foundry Networks earlier this year with Matrix Communications.
Hughes says a key benefit is the ease with which the equipment can be upgraded. ‘We are enhancing the network and moving customers with us at the same time,’ he said.
Gartner research vice president Neil Rickard says Linx has done well to increase membership and handle rising traffic, after recent suggestions that larger ISPs could move to private peering arrangements rather than a shared model.
‘Linx is obviously providing a good service, and the upgrade will put it at the forefront of modern network design,’ he said.
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