The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) is an Ethernet-based neutral peering point running over the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington, New Zealand. It is part of CityLink's ExchangeNET group of peering exchanges.
The Wellington Internet Exchange (WIX) was established to allow entities connected to the CityLink metropolitan network in Wellington to send traffic directly to and from each other rather than via their ISP. This activity is known as peering.
This provides improvements in speed as traffic travels directly between the parties and reduces load on the network by reducing the need for traffic to be duplicated through one or more intermediate ISP routers. In some cases this also avoids traffic being routed "out of town", or incurring ISP's traffic charges.
Each connected entity could add specific details of networks they want to talk to directly to their routers (static routes and bilateral BGP sessions) but this quickly becomes an administrative headache as adds, changes and deletions become time consuming and error prone if more than a few peering sessions are configured.
The Wellington Internet Exchange provides two route servers which contain routing details for each of the participants. This simplifies peering enormously for most exchange users.
The WIX has been described as a world-first for a distributed metropolitan Ethernet-based Internet exchange.
Famous quotes containing the words wellington and/or exchange:
“Something is about to happen. Leaves are still.
Two shores away, a man hammering in the sky.
Perhaps he will fall.”
—Alfred Wellington Purdy (b. 1919)
“Even if you find yourself in a heated exchange with your toddler, it is better for your child to feel the heat rather than for him to feel you withdraw emotionally.... Active and emotional involvement between parent and child helps the child make the limits a part of himself.”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)