The Quad-Cities Internet eXchange (QCIX) is the fourth IX I’ve been a part of getting off the ground. My first three were MICE, OmahaIX and IX Denver.
With MICE dipping its toe in the multi-datacenter realm a a new second location (MN-Ridgeview). Let’s talk about how QCIX handles remote fabrics.
At QCIX, each data center is responsible for the equipment located in their facilities.
SFN operates IA-Davenport (Core) and IA-Waterloo (Remote)
Bluebird Networks operates BBQC (Remote)
Aureon operates 616 Des Moines (Remote)
MN VoIP operates 511 Minneapolis (Remote)
Each of the data centers are also responsible for the backhaul to get connected back to the QCIX Core switch (32x100G Arista) located in SFN IA-Davenport. The IX only holds the IP address space and operates the route servers.
The data center operators are able to charge whatever they like for ports on their remote switches. A side benefit is that QCIX doesn’t handle any money.
For instance, SFN only charges standard cross connects ($100 MRC/$250 NRC) for 10G ports (no port fee) and $500 MRC for 100G remote ports including the cross connect. SFN also uses identical pricing at our MICE remote switch located in the SFN MN-AlbertLea carrier motel. Per the agreement with QCIX, there are no port charges on the main switch including for ports used to uplink the remote switches.
Why have all these remotes?
Having multiple options when a prospective peer is onboarding makes the process much easier and faster. Also the datacenters can compete on pricing and other services not that they are the only location that has “the” IX.
Further, in mid-sized and smaller markets getting an IX to critical mass is crazy difficult. If there are two IXes in the small markets it’s almost impossible for either to get enough peers to be viable.
Some networks will also connect to multiple remote switches for redundancy. This is most common with content networks but a number of last-mile eyeball networks have also start to take this strategy as public peering take a more critical role in their bandwidth mix.