Western Australian Internet Exchange
Encyclopedia
The Western Australian Internet Exchange (WAIX) was formed in 1997 as a neutral Internet Exchange Point
in Perth
, Australia
. Its three founding members were iiNet
, Omen Internet and Wantree Internet. Today WAIX has over 50 peers and facilitates the transfer of over a gigabit
per second.
The exchange is a project of the Western Australian Internet Association which acts as the corporate patron of the project, although the facility is self-funded on a not-for-profit basis through modest access fees. WAIX is the longest running exchange point in Australia.
The facility is located in the QV.1 building in central Perth, and most Western Australian ISPs
and all data passing through the Kalgoorlie Satellite Gateway peer
at the facility. The exchange has a compulsory Multi-Lateral Peering Agreement MLPA, however bi-lateral interconnection at the facility is welcome in addition to the MLPA.
. WAIX formalised as an initiative by the Western Australian Internet Association after a presentation by Andrew Khoo on his similar work in Sydney and Melbourne to create multi-lateral peering fabrics in both cities. The ISPs at the presentation later agreed they could form the fabric themselves and did so by purchasing a small room in "QV.1" and began as a formal peering exchange after Omen, iiNet and Wantree moved their interconnects into the peering room.
Various attempts were made over the first few years to arrange traffic exchange between peers at WAIX and peers at other Australian internet exchanges (notably the "South Australia Internet Exchange", or SAIX) allowing peers to pay for interstate traffic. This was an arrangement with one of the peers at the time (information needed) who peered at more than one Australian peering fabric. Similar arrangements were formalised in the eastern states with the formation of AusBone.
Internet Exchange Point
An Internet exchange point is a physical infrastructure through which Internet service providers exchange Internet traffic between their networks . IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic which must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit...
in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Its three founding members were iiNet
IiNet
iiNet Limited is Australia's second largest internet service provider with over 1.3 million customers as of 15th August 2011. Their focus is primarily on ADSL-based Internet access, using their own ADSL2+ infrastructure, and reselling Telstra ADSL1. iiNet also provides dial-up and voice...
, Omen Internet and Wantree Internet. Today WAIX has over 50 peers and facilitates the transfer of over a gigabit
Gigabit
The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...
per second.
The exchange is a project of the Western Australian Internet Association which acts as the corporate patron of the project, although the facility is self-funded on a not-for-profit basis through modest access fees. WAIX is the longest running exchange point in Australia.
The facility is located in the QV.1 building in central Perth, and most Western Australian ISPs
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
and all data passing through the Kalgoorlie Satellite Gateway peer
Peering
In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network. The pure definition of peering is settlement-free or "sender keeps all," meaning that neither party pays the...
at the facility. The exchange has a compulsory Multi-Lateral Peering Agreement MLPA, however bi-lateral interconnection at the facility is welcome in addition to the MLPA.
Brief history
The peering fabric first existed informally as links between "Wantree Internet" and "Omen Internet" to iiNetIiNet
iiNet Limited is Australia's second largest internet service provider with over 1.3 million customers as of 15th August 2011. Their focus is primarily on ADSL-based Internet access, using their own ADSL2+ infrastructure, and reselling Telstra ADSL1. iiNet also provides dial-up and voice...
. WAIX formalised as an initiative by the Western Australian Internet Association after a presentation by Andrew Khoo on his similar work in Sydney and Melbourne to create multi-lateral peering fabrics in both cities. The ISPs at the presentation later agreed they could form the fabric themselves and did so by purchasing a small room in "QV.1" and began as a formal peering exchange after Omen, iiNet and Wantree moved their interconnects into the peering room.
Various attempts were made over the first few years to arrange traffic exchange between peers at WAIX and peers at other Australian internet exchanges (notably the "South Australia Internet Exchange", or SAIX) allowing peers to pay for interstate traffic. This was an arrangement with one of the peers at the time (information needed) who peered at more than one Australian peering fabric. Similar arrangements were formalised in the eastern states with the formation of AusBone.