[LACNIC/Napla] Lacnic XII / NAPLA - Q & A

[Bill Woodcock]

On Jun 2, 2009, at 1:36 PM, <gabriel.adonaylo at bt.com> wrote:
> There's always been an idea to interconnect IXPs between different  
> countries in the region and of course a debate around these  
> initiatives. As I noticed that one of the speakers mentioned this  
> topic once again I thought it was a good idea to re-open the  
> discussion taking advantage of your presence in the meeting...


I would strongly second Serge's remarks.  In my experience, the idea  
of "interconnecting IXPs" inevitably springs up periodically, in every  
region.  It's always the brain-wave of someone smart and well- 
intentioned, but who doesn't clearly grasp the economic structure of  
the Internet.

Interconnecting IXPs turns the IXPs into a layer-2 carrier, and  
destroys the IXPs in the process.  This is very nearly definitional,  
in fact.

So anyone who's deriving value from an IXP should oppose any attempts  
to convert it, since that will both reduce and privatize the value of  
the IXP.  It takes a large public good, and converts it to (at best) a  
small private good.  Speaking in a more global political and economic  
context, we've already seen enough of that sort of behavior in the  
last decade, and already seen what it does to the economic environment  
that we work within.


> De: napla-bounces at lacnic.net [mailto:napla-bounces at lacnic.net] En  
> nombre de Serge Radovcic
> Enviado el: Martes, 02 de Junio de 2009 07:45 a.m.
> Para: Lista de operadores de NAP/IXP de la regió n
> Asunto: Re: [LACNIC/Napla] Lacnic XII / NAPLA - Q & A
>
> Oops!!
>
> I think I was writing a little too quickly....Just to be clear......  
> I meant to say that there is "NO" trend of IXPs interconnecting and  
> that the members of association run IXPs would be "STRONGLY OPPOSED"  
> to such interconnection plans.
>
> Serge
>
> On 6/2/09 12:34 PM, "Serge Radovcic" <serge at euro-ix.net> wrote:
>
>> In general the answer would be "no". And I would say that there is
>> even a trend or plan for this to be the case.
>>
>> There are a very few, and I mean around five of the 110 IXPs in  
>> Europe
>> that have initiated such interconnection plans over the years, a few
>> of these have been commercial internet exchanges and one of them had
>> quite a bit of success in doing this, while the others that have gone
>> down this road have been 'government' run IXPs that were looking to
>> connect local government networks with each other, this was generally
>> done on a regional or sometimes national level.
>>
>> Most IXPs in Europe tend to be associations and their policies are
>> generally directly or indirectly put in place by their membership.  
>> And
>> many of their members would not be strongly opposed to such plans of
>> connecting IXPs, mainly for the reason that they feel that they would
>> be losing business through these connections and that the IXP would
>> now be in competition with them on a regional, national or even  
>> international scale.
>>
>> So how does the Latin American IXP community feel about
>> interconnecting IXPs? Have their been attempts in the past to do  
>> this?
>> Are there some planning to do this?
>
>
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                                 -Bill




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