#IDDtalks on IXP: its key role for improving speed, latency and resilience.

Tuesday 17th August 2021. The #IDDTalks is a space created by the Institute of Digital Development for Latin America and the Caribbean – IDDLAC-, which emerged with the purpose of addressing the diverse issues that help to the Digital Ecosystem development, and, at the same time, meets the interests of the Institute.  One of those is the promotion of solid regulations that can understand and reach the different actors, and channelize some of the consensuses of Internet Governance. Within this framework, IXPs have a very important role, and that is why they are the hoy topic of this talk.

The regional infrastructure for interconnection has been expanding: Last year, the IXP.GT of Guatemala; IX-DO from Dominican Republic; IXSY of Yucatán, Mexico, and another one in El Salvador, IXSAL. All of them emerged with the support of an alliance formed by LACNIC, LAC-IX, and the Internet Society. That is why, the main protagonists of this talk were the representatives of these organizations: Israel Rosas, Senior Regional Development Manager of the Internet Society; Carlos Martínez, Manager of the Technical Area of LACNIC; and Gabriel Adonaylo,  LAC-IX Coordinator.

Although the role of the IXP is to improve the efficiency of the network and the speed of response, during the talk they addressed and clarified some negative ideas, such as the one that Internet Exchange Points also may play a role in surveillance and privacy.

They explained that they play a fundamental role since they provide resilience to the network and also improve performance in both access speed and latency. It is a collaborative model where different access and content provider networks, exchange their traffic at a local or regional level.

Another addressed topic was IXP sustainability, a  fundamental aspect for its survival, once it starts to provide services.

You can watch the video (available in Spanish) here: