JINX

1. JINX Abuja, April 2007 William Stucke ISPA (SA) ManCom Member AfrISPA Chairman

2. ISPA, South Africa • Association formed in June 1996, primarily to combat the incumbent’s attempt to monopolise IP • 129 Members • Large 14 • Medium 6 • Small 99 • Affiliate 6 • Honorary 4 • Growing rapidly – 7 new members so far this year • Members include 3½ out of 7 licensed network operators - “Telcos”

3. JINX • Johannesburg Internet Exchange • Formed in December 1996 • Currently some 18 peers through the JINX switch fabric, and 5+ private peering arrangements “around” JINX • An artefact of JINX’s “Equivalent Line Charge” philosophy – which in turn is an artefact of high Telkom charges

4. Traffic Exchanged • About 95 Mbps through the exchange • Over 1 Gbps through private peering links, at JINX and directly • See http://stats.jinx.net.za/

5. Site Neutrality versus Hardened facility • A hardened facility is very important! • Initially, JINX was hosted by an ISP (IS). This was perceived as giving IS an unfair advantage. Equivalent Line Charges were deemed insufficient compensation • Moved to an independent location, managed by ISPA, in the same building. • Failures of equipment – and of those contracted to maintain it - caused a change of strategy. Put hosting out to tender. IS won tender for JINX, UUNET won tender for CINX • JINX now hosted by IS, again. IS pays all management costs, and Equivalent Line Charges! • CINX defunct – lack of interest in moving to the new location

6. Regulatory Issues • No direct regulatory issues w.r.t. JINX. No problem in running an IXP in RSA (c.f. Kenya) • However, Telkom’s continuing de facto monopoly on carrier services is a major issue • Costs of exchanging local traffic via JINX is not much better than the (very high) costs of international transit • As soon as an alternative carrier service is available (August?), we expect to see significant changes: - • Lower costs • More peers • More direct traffic • Finally get rid of Equivalent Line Charges • Huge issues regarding fair competition and bundling

7. Connectivity to JINX • Only two choices at present: - • Diginet (<= 2 Mbps) or ATM (<= 140 Mbps) from Telkom • Fibre or UTP from a nearby hosting facility • Fibre is currently being strung from lampposts outside 155 Jan Smuts Avenue. No one has yet admitted to owning it! • RSA is currently in the process of changing from the old Telecommunications Act (heavily favouring Telkom) to the new Electronic Communications Act, which will open up the market significantly. • Dependent on the regulator, ICASA, to develop and publish regulations, convert existing licenses, and issue new licenses. • A slow process

8. Cost of connecting to JINX • No additional monthly fee, over ISPA membership fees (including VAT): - • Large $ 1,000 per month • Medium $ 245 per month • Small $ 60 per month (or $550 pa) • JINX joining fee (to pay for past / future capital expenditure on equipment) depending on size. • Large $ 4,000 • Medium $ 1,600 • Small $ 400 • Payable over 10 months

9. Available facilities • Three 19” Racks • Telkom Martis Node (for Diginet connections) • Filtered UPS power • Generator backup (3 x 30 MVA?) • Air Conditioning • Security – access control, physical cage and remotely operated cameras • 24 hour on-site staff • I & F Root Servers • Looking Glass • MRTG graphs • Access to Akamai Server (via a member at JINX)

10. Critical Vendor Issues • None? • Members use whatever routers they choose (not a PC) • Switch fabric provided by a pair of dual redundant Cisco switches • Problems in the past with insufficient backplane capacity • Expect to need to upgrade soon, especially if VoIP interchange takes off. Only 2 GbE ports available

11. Who can Peer at JINX? • Any Large, Medium, Small or Honorary ISPA member • To qualify, the member must be: - • An Access Provider (including VoIP), • Server Hosting provider, or • A Critical Infrastructure Provider • Sizes can peer at different speeds: - • Large Unlimited • Medium <= 512 kbps • Small <= 128 kbps

12. Active IXP Association? • No separate association for the IXP • A VERY active ISPA • Management Committee • Joint Chairs • Seven members • Twelve Working Groups to manage various issues. Most are open to all members. WGs include; - • Fair Competition (Legal issues, including 3 cases currently before the Competition Commission / Tribunal) • Submissions (Regulatory issues) • PR * • Membership * • Events (Annual free iWeek conference in September) • Operator Liaison (Telkom, MCTSs, Metro networks) • JINX • Code of Conduct • Research Reports bought at a discounted rate and supplied free to all members • Two Legal Advisors and a PR firm retained

13. Thank you William@zanet.co.za www.ispa.org.za www.afrispa.org