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April 06, 2003
Transit Exchange: Supporting Utah's Network Future (Part 2)
A network exchange provides a focal point for Internet infrastructure. By bringing network traffic to a single location, the costs to participate decrease and the benefits of participating increase exponentially as more participants join and more traffic crosses the exchange. I don't know much about highway construction, but I'd guess there are apt analogies to major interstate highway exchanges and the impact they have on the surrounding infrastructure.
Transit exchanges bring more bandwidth and more networks to the same location. Not only can networks peer at the exchange, they can also buy and sell Internet bandwidth. This attracks more networks, who might initially participate only as a buyer or seller, but eventually start peering with other networks at the exchange, because it's in the same location.
The justification for peering is driven by the amount of bandwidth that can be exchanged. Utah's population is so small, we just don't (currently) generate enough traffic to make peering compelling except for a handful of local and regional networks. As I mentioned yesterday, broadband and high-speed networks being built to residences and businesses may change that dramatically. But even with 10+ times the bandwidth/user, it's still a stretch.
A transit exchange brings purchase power to the table. A large contract could be bid with a requirement for transit-exchange delivery. Companies willing to spend money at the exchange will attract existing and new service providers to provide service there. The lower costs of providing service to lots of large customers, at a single location, allows more aggressive pricing.
As more infrastructure is built to the transit exchange, Utah gets better inter- and intra-state connectivity, better quality service, more choice, and hopefully better pricing of Internet bandwidth.
Posted by pete at April 6, 2003 01:13 PM
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