A Place for the IXP, technical information, and more...
You need a place for the IXP. In some countries this is a mutally agreed neutral location, it can be a network operations center (NOC), a carrier neutral data centre, a university, or other agreed location.
Power, cooling, security, and technical experts to run and manage the IXP are critical.
Click here for an IXP Wishlist put together by some of the experts involved with Euro-IX.
Check out these links for technical information, Recommendations, equipment, and specs!
Cymru - Is an Internet security firm. Check out this link for information about their bogon.
AMS-IX - See AMS-IX's website that contains configuration hints that may be useful when you are trying to sort out what config you need.
See below for some basic physical, technical, power, and other suggested requirements. This document was put together by ISOC staff and technical experts. Do you have suggestions for improving this list? Send them to us here.
Rack Space
We recommend at least 4 x 42U Cabinet Racks fitted with trays, door locks and mesh doors for better cooling and measuring 800 x 900. The rack allocations are recommended as follows;
- 1 x 42U for carrier(s) transmission equipment.
- 1 x 42U for the peering fabric Switch and Servers
- 1 x 42U for Value added services
- 1 x 42U for Peering member routers.
Structured Cabling
The structured cabling is necessary to ensure quality of service and presentation of the facility.
Power Backup and Distribution
We recommend the supply and installation of a three phase inline 10KVA UPS with extended battery pack. A 10KVA power inverter with batteries to last at least 12 – 24hrs would be needed in location with prolonged power problems and without a generator. In addition a Power distribution board installed for the facility and rack distribution units installed for each rack for proper power management.
Server Room Cooling
A formula for calculating cooling is;
Total Heat Load = Room Area BTU + Windows BTU + Equipment BTU + Lighting BTU
Room Area BTU = Length (m) x Width (m) x 337 = 15m2 x 337 = 5,055BTU
Windows BTU = Length (m) x Width (m) x 870 = 9m2 x 870 = 7,830 BTU
Equipment BTU = Total wattage x 3.5 = 10,000w x 3.5 = 35,000 BTU
Lighting BTU = Total wattage x 4.25 = 100w x 4.25 = 425 BTU
Based on the above formulae the estimated Total Heat Load for the room operating at full capacity is; 5055 + 7830 + 35000 + 425 = 48,310 BTU.
We therefore recommend at least 2 x 36,000 BTU split system Air condition units for the MOZIX. During the initial period one AC will support the facility and the other will serve as backup.
Switch and Route-Server
We recommend the acquisition of 2 x 48 10/100/1000Gbps with at least 2 – 4 Gigabit (SFP) interfaces to cater for current requirements, future growth and redundancy. The switch should support Sflow features.
A Server based Route-Server that supports BGP with IPv4 and IPV6 is recommended. Therefore 2 x servers for the route-servers as per the Server specifications below will be useful for the lab.
Server Hardware Recommendations
The IXP best practices require that an IXP operator provide additional information such as a member’s mailing list, a website with contact information for the IXP and the members available, email address and at least some statistical information on the traffic exchanged at the IXP. Some IXPs keep an archive of their historical traffic growth to track growth. Others provide a ticketing system for lodging queries and have gone further with advanced network monitoring tools. All the efforts are aimed at ensuring that an IXP is able to provide efficient and reliable services for their members. Computing resources are required in order to host and offer these additional services. Therefore at least 5 x 2U Rack Mount Servers with the following specifications;
- Intel Quad Core Processor
- At least 8GB of RAM
- At least 4 x 450GB 3.5 SAS with 10,000 rpm Hard Disk
- Built in Raid controller (minimum Raid 1)
- DVD ROM/Writer
- Dual (2) 1Gb Ethernet controllers
- Redundant power supply
- Rack Mount Kit
The usage is as follows;
2 x Servers for Route-Servers (redundancy)
1 x Server for IXP Email, Helpdesk and Website
1 x Server for Network Monitoring Services
1 x Server for backup, flow analysis, R&D, etc.
Security and Access Control
The security and access control is important in order to safeguard the equipment hosted at the facility.
Network Monitoring
To enhance service delivery there will be a need for monitoring of the network devices. In addition to the computing resources, It’s also necessary to acquire a SMS notification unit that can alert technical staff of outages via SMS messages.
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