Ports

Important: Equinix Connect has been upgraded to make ordering your Internet Access Service faster and simpler. For information about ordering new connections, see Equinix Internet Access.

Equinix Connect offers the flexibility to support several Ethernet interface types, redundancy options, minimum bandwidth commit rates, and maximum burst cap limits. The port is the primary means of connection between you and the Equinix Connect platform.

You can choose from available Ethernet interface types:

  • Gigabit Ethernet – 1000BASE-LX on Single-Mode Fiber (SMF)
  • Ten Gigabit Ethernet – 10G-LR on SMF
  • One Hundred Gigabit Ethernet – 100G-LR on SMF

Equinix Connect offers a range of redundancy options to suit your requirements and equipments:

  • Single-homed installation (single-port) – You can connect through a single cross connect to a single port on the Equinix Connect platform.

  • Dual-homed installation (dual-port) – You are set up with two Cross Connects that are connected to two independent ports on the Equinix Connect platform.

    Note: You can choose a multi-homed installation from within the same IBX (AMER and EMEA), or from within any IBX in a metro (Australia in APAC, selected sites in EMEA) where there is space and service offered.

Link Aggregation Group

Link Aggregation Group (LAG) configurations are supported on 10G Equinix Connect ports, and up to 10 ports can exist within one LAG. Your equipment must support Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). The ports within your LAG can't include Equinix Connect ports in different metros. The ports must all terminate to the same Equinix Connect switch or router.

An Equinix Connect service that uses LAG is still considered to be a single EC service, and doesn't need to be viewed as multiple services corresponding to the number of ports in the LAG.

In dual-homed configurations, both primary and secondary ports must have the same number ports.

Example: When 3x10G forms a LAG on the primary side, there must be a 3x10G LAG on the secondary side.

The bandwidth commit for this service is assigned on a per port basis, because traffic in a LAG is approximately shared across all ports.

Example: When ordering a 3x10G LAG with a desired bandwidth commit of 24 Mbps, assign a bandwidth commit of 8 Mbps per port (3x8=24 Mbps).

Note: Traffic in a LAG is shared across all ports.

Minimum Bandwidth Commit

You can order Equinix Connect service by means of minimum bandwidth committed rates in units of 1 M bit.

Example: When you require 50 M bit of transit, the order must include the product item with minimum bandwidth commit of 1 M bit with a quantity of 50 units.

You can pass the traffic in excess of the committed rate up to the burst cap. Traffic is charged on per-Mb basis, with a premium applied to the rates above the minimum bandwidth commit. The up-link and down-link speeds are symmetrical.

Minimum bandwidth commit ranges are based on the port speed selected:

  • 1G port – 10M to 2,000M, or burst cap
  • 10G port – 500M to 20,000M, or burst cap
  • 100G port – 5,000M to 200,000M, or burst cap

Burst Cap

The burst cap sets an upper limit on the amount of traffic that passes through your port. This cap is set automatically to the port speed, but you can reset it to a lower value after you have ordered Equinix Connect.

  • You can set or edit the burst cap to any value between the minimum bandwidth commit and the port speed in AMER and APAC. In EMEA, the burst cap is always set to the maximum upper limit or port speed.

    Note: Australia allows for aggregate billing of two separate Equinix Connect services, so you can set the burst cap to two times (2x) the port speed.

  • To avoid receiving any burst billing charges, set the burst cap to the minimum bandwidth commit.
  • Equinix leverages traffic policing to keep your traffic within the burst cap.

  • Traffic can't burst beyond the port speed.

Technical Specifications

Specifications

Details

Available Port Options

1Gig and 10G port interfaces for single or dual-port (one or two connections)

IP Allocation

IPv4 and IPv6 allocations and additional IP allocations are available (/30/29/28/27), chargeable and subject to suitable justification

Dynamic or Static Routing

BGP static routing options are available

Flexible Minimum Bandwidth Commit

Bandwidth commitments scale easily to meet emerging demand

Traffic Bursting and Usage-Based Billing

Billing is based on the 95th percentile of traffic, with burst fees applied when exceeding the minimum bandwidth commit

Remotely Triggered Black Hole

During a potential DDoS attack, Equinix black holes a single IP address temporarily, and pushes the black hole advertisement towards the northbound ISP. All IP traffic towards that IP address is dropped. This prevents saturation of all upstream ports, thereby protecting the Equinix network and its customers.

This triggering happens automatically when a single host exceeds predefined limits for traffic and packet rate. Once the threat is removed, the customer whose traffic was blocked is reinstated after sufficient time has elapsed.

Monitoring and Notifications

Your ports are actively monitored at all Equinix-employed Network Monitoring Systems (NMS) for all Equinix Network equipments.

  1. The NMS sends an automated email to you and the NOC when any instability is seen in the port. 
  2. You can inform Equinix if your service is impacted. NOC will restore the services for you.
  3. For BGP users, the port is monitored by Monolith and the BGP.
  4. For VRRP users, the NOC receives a notification for the successful switchover from the host to the client port.

Equinix monitors the upstream provider availability and bandwidth utilization with Cricket. This data allows Equinix to identify any outages on the upstream transit providers and manage the traffic to avoid the bursting fees.