LINX Announce New Year Port Fee Reductions of 15% on its two London LANs and at US exchange LINX NoVA

LINX, the London Internet Exchange, have committed to significantly reducing 10GE and 100GE port fees on its LON1 and LON2 networks in London, and at its regional exchange LINX NoVA in Northern Virginia, USA. This was ratified by a vote by LINX members at an Extraordinary General Meeting in London on the 20th November.

As of 1st January 2019 prices on selected port sizes will be cut by 15%. On LON1 10GE fees will drop to £638 per month with 100GE ports priced at only £3596 over the same period. Meanwhile, the recently upgraded LON2 platform has new monthly fees of £360 for 10GE and £2277 for the 100GE port option.

Also taking effect in January is the end of promotional traffic based billing at LINX NoVA. The 15% cut will price 10GE ports at NoVA at an attractive US$425 while 100GE will be as little as US$2720.

LINX CEO, John Souter, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer these price reductions for our members. It continues our long-standing policy of driving down costs which has seen fees reduced year-on-year for more than a decade. There’s never been a better time to connect to LINX.”

Pricing at LINX’s UK regional exchanges LINX Manchester, LINX Scotland and LINX Cardiff all remain unchanged for 2019. However, these still include the free 1GE port connection that comes as part of the annual £1200 membership fee.

LINX’s current pricing structure can be viewed on the LINX website

About the London Internet Exchange (LINX)

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is one of the largest Internet exchanges in the world, connecting over 850 member ASNs from 80 countries around the globe. LINX continues to expand their London presence with 16 locations across London along with regional exchanges in Wales, Manchester and Scotland. LINX also operates an Internet exchange in the Ashburn metro area in the US just outside Washington DC.

LINX has been webcasting its member meetings for 15 years since LINX41 in May 2003. The service, which is provided by LINX member Bogons, is an excellent way for LINX’s global membership to follow conference proceedings if they are unable to make the event in person.

LINX member conferences include operational and networking presentation, guest speakers, member technical talks and the latest updates on regulatory issues. The video below gives you a flavour of how these events can be seen by viewers.

The next event to be webcast is LINX103 which will take place at the Park Plaza Victoria, in London on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th November. Members can watch the live webcast on the day via the LINX member portal.

To access the live stream please click on the Member drop down at the top of the page and click on the Portal option. The webcast link can be found in the Events section. The direct link to the webcast facility is below but requires member authentication to be able to view the live stream.

If you are a LINX member and do not have a log-in please contact our Member Relations team.

The 2018 annual LINX membership survey has now closed.

Text updated on 5th November 2018

As per previous years we were grateful for members’ cooperation in providing frank and honest answers to the selection of questions regarding LINX operations and the exchange’s position in the marketplace.

It’s important for us to understand how members feel LINX is performing in all aspects of our work, and where members think there is room for improvement. We can then consider your responses to help model future plans and developments.

New for 2018

For completing this survey members had the chance to win a Nintendo Switch Console with 2 x games (Sonic Forces & Mario Kart), Joy-Con Wheel and Memory Card. We accepted one response from each membership with the first response from each member was recognised for the survey.

If you have any queries about the questions, please email Member Relations or call us on +44 1733 207777

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) have completed the migration phase of its LON2 network architecture refresh, a radical solution which uses EVPN routing technology and open network hardware.

In this video LINX Chief Technology Officer, Richard Petrie, and LINX Lead Architect, Flemming Heino, explains how long has the migration process took, what infrastructure changes have been made to the LON2 network and how it differs from other Internet exchanges.

Richard also covers what this new approach could mean for the LON1 platform while Flemming adds a few final thoughts on the project now that the migration has been completed.

Read more about the LON2 migration project

LINX has been presented with the Best Internet Exchange Operator of the Year award 2018 at the Carrier Community Global awards in Berlin.

Independently judged by a panel of telecoms analysts and industry experts, the CC-Global Awards are Carrier Community’s official recognition of innovative achievements among the telecom wholesale operators, both regionally and globally.

The Best Internet Exchange Operator of the Year category seeks to recognise IX-operators who have shown high levels of network innovation and creativity with their service offering. LINX CMO Kurtis Lindqvist was on hand to receive the prize at a special ceremony at the Central and Eastern Europe “CEE” 2018 GCCM event on the 18th June.

“It was a great honour to accept this award on behalf LINX and comes at a very exciting time for the exchange,” said Lindqvist. “We have just completed the migration phase of our LON2 platform in London using a radical new disaggregated network model using EVPN routing technology on open network hardware.”

“We feel that this award is recognition of our long-standing commitment to delivering long-term innovative technology to our members, as well as increased levels of service quality that allows us to provide services at a greatly reduced cost.”

The GCCM Awards were introduced by Wida Schmidt, CEO at Carrier Community, and moderated by Erik van Stokkom from VS Consulting with Viktoria Mincheva from Leixico. Many leading telecom companies were nominated for the 30 different award categories.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) have announced that it has completed the migration of its LON2 platform to a new disaggregated network model that uses EVPN technology, the first IXP anywhere in the World to do so.

The new LON2 architecture employs EVPN over VXLAN, leaf-spine topology, full automation and is 100G ready. The solution, which uses IP Infusion’s OcNOS™ network operating system and switch hardware from Edgecore Networks, became fully operational on 5^th June following an extensive testing, proof of concept, and migration process lasting nearly two years.

 “By introducing a disaggregated platform, LINX members will benefit from increased flexibility plus continued value from their investment,” said Richard Petrie, LINX CTO. “The EVPN technology allows LINX to deliver long-term innovative technology to our members, a commitment to ever-greater levels of service quality and to allow us to provide services at a greatly reduced cost base.”

LINX Lead Architect, Flemming Heino, added, “With EVPN everything is programmed. Switches talk to one another, they are synchronised and ultimately more predictable and stable. The system offers many benefits and the flexibility for more features to be added such as multi-homing.”

George Tchaparian, CEO, Edgecore Networks, said, “There are many operational and cost benefits of the new architecture model and Edgecore are extremely proud to have worked with LINX on this ground-breaking project. We’ve clearly demonstrated that open network systems are ready outside of data centre applications and are viable solutions for mainstream telecom service providers. With our industry proven open networking switches and IP Infusion’s robust, high function NOS, LINX will be able to deliver the flexibility of an open network architecture with additional value-added services at a lower cost.

“Growing network traffic levels are placing great demands on networks such as LINX to deliver new, innovative services at faster rates,” said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion. “The OcNOS and Edgecore switch solution has meant that LINX could more easily design and migrate to their disaggregated LON2 network model ensuring it meets the specific and exacting needs of its membership.”

LINX is one of the world’s largest operators of Internet Exchange Point (IXP) services, connecting over 820 networks in over 75 countries. It operates a dual-LAN infrastructure in London with regional exchanges in Manchester, Cardiff and central Scotland. It also operates an exchange in Northern Virginia, USA.

About Edgecore Networks

Edgecore Networks Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation, the leading network ODM.  Edgecore Networks delivers wired and wireless networking products and solutions through channel partners and system integrators worldwide for the Data Center, Service Provider, Enterprise and SMB customers.  Edgecore Networks is the leader in open networking providing a full line of open WiFi access points, packet transponders, virtual PON OLTs, and 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G OCP-ACCEPTEDTM switches that offer choice of commercial and open source NOS and SDN software. For more information, visit www.edge-core.com.

About IP Infusion

IP Infusion, the leader in disaggregated networking solutions, delivers enterprise and carrier-grade software solutions allowing network operators to reduce network costs, increase flexibility, and to deploy new features and services quickly. IP Infusion’s OcNOS, the industry’s first enterprise and carrier-grade network operating system for Open Compute hardware, allows for easier implementation of large-scale IT networks, and offers customers white box solutions to deploy more quickly. VirNOS, a NFV-based software platform, provides a carriers and enterprises with a cost-effective network OS approach to implement and manage their networking services. With the OcNOS and VirNOS network operating systems, both powered by ZebOS, IP Infusion offers network operators, carriers, and enterprises with the physical and virtual software solutions they need to achieve the disaggregated networking model. Over 300 customers worldwide, including major networking equipment manufacturers, use IP Infusion’s respected ZebOS platform to build networks to address the evolving needs of cloud, carrier and mobile networking. IP Infusion is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of ACCESS CO., LTD. Additional information can be found at http://www.ipinfusion.com.

IP Infusion, ZebOS, VirNOS and OcNOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of IP Infusion. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) have refreshed its LON2 network architecture using EVPN routing technology, the first IXP in the world to do so.

In this video LINX Chief Technology Officer, Richard Petrie, and LINX Lead Architect, Flemming Heino, explain the process in detail including why LINX decided to implement a disaggregated model, the benefits of EVPN, the challenges faced during the project and what it all means to LINX members. Also covered is why LINX selected Edgecore Networks and IP Infusion as project partners.