Internet Exchange FAQs

• More campus environments with (1,700+) peering partners at Equinix:

  • Reduces the network equipment needed and eliminates hops

  • Improves performance and lowers costs

• Multiple options to support full bandwidth scaling model

  • IP Transit – Equinix Connect manages internet connectivity to your destinations through the public internet

  • Public Peering – Peering over a public peering platform (IX) to exchange traffic to key destinations through the same port (or multiple ports)

  • Private Peering – Peering through a cross connect that directly connects you to the highest volume

IX comprises of:

• Internet Exchange port (includes Cross Connect to IX); available port speeds are 1, 10, and 100 Gbps

• As required, IX also includes a Metro Connect at no additional charge, depending on data center location and proximity to the IX platform.

Yes, Equinix IX supports assignment of IPv6 addresses and reverse DNS for dual-stack peering on the same peering port as IPv4. Customers can request their IPv6 address by emailing noc@equinix.com.

Yes. Equinix IX provides a Layer 2 Ethernet switch fabric over which networks can exchange IP traffic.

Yes. All connections to Equinix IX are over Ethernet. Our policies limit participants to a single MAC address per port, and do not allow Layer 2 protocols such as Spanning Tree to be shared between customer devices over the Equinix switching fabric.

Yes. Equinix offers Multi-Lateral Peering Exchange (MLPE), and maintains a redundant pair of route servers at each IX for this purpose. We support IPv6 at all MLPE locations and BGP communities for route control. For full description of this service and to request participation, visit MLPE Registration Page on the IX portal.

Yes. There are multiple peering discussion lists:

• On a global level, exchange-discussion@equinix.com is used to discuss related topics and make announcements. To subscribe, you can email noc@equinix.com with a request to be added to the exchange-discussion@equinix.com mailing list

• Separate discussion and announcement lists exist for Equinix Internet Exchanges in EMEA. Internet Exchange members are automatically subscribed to the announcement list of their chosen IXP. If you want to subscribe to one of the discussion lists, send an e-mail to any one of the following: Paris-Discuss –Join, Geneva-Discuss –Join, or Zurich-Discuss –Join

• Each of the AP Exchanges in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney also have separate discussion and announcement lists. You can manage your subscriptions at:http://lists.ap.equinix.com/mailman/listinfo

Yes. The RTBH prefix is a subset of the IRR-validated prefixes from the advertising ASN.

Yes. For RTBH to take effect, the Black Hole announcement must be accepted by other peering partners. Peering participants can accept the prefixes with prefix length = 32 and BGP community 65535:666. Participation in the RTBH feature is optional.

Yes. The Equinix RTBH feature is based on an IETF draft standard: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-grow-blackholing-01.txt

Yes. The feature supports IPv6. MLPE route server changes the next-hop IPv6 address to the Black Hole host (example 2001:2:4115:240) if your prefixes are tagged with BGP community 65535:666. The Black Hole host then responds to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery.

Equinix MPLE route servers accept /32 IPv4 prefix announcements with BGP community tag for RTBH filtering.

Single Mode Fiber (SMF) for 1G LX, 10G LR and 100 LR4.

ARP IPv4 and IPv6 are the only Ethertypes allowed.

Yes. Ports can be tagged or untagged.

BUM storm-control settings include Broadcast, Multicast, and unknown Unicast limited to 10 Mbps each on ingress, regardless of the port size. There are no settings for the Private VLAN.

Only one MAC is allowed per physical port.

One VLAN and one IP is required for multi-lateral and bilateral peering. VLAN ID can be different depending on the location.

One IP address per port is assigned by Equinix from local IX IP address pool.

Yes.

When you identify a port as a secondary port, Equinix provisions that port on a separate IX chassis. As Equinix does not distinguish between primary and secondary ports, you can manage the selection and switching of the traffic. Equinix provides the same SLA on all ports.

No, QOS is not supported. All the packets are forwarded as FIFO without blocking.

Yes. Jumbo Frames up to 9000 byte are supported.

No. Currently, Multicast is not supported on the IX.

No.

Two ports are supported on a Private VLAN.

No.

No.

Currently, there is no limit to the number of addresses allowed.

Equinix assigns a VLAN ID from a predefined range that is unique within a metro. This range is used across all metros.

You can assign your own IP schema for Private VLAN. Equinix passes through the L3 information.

No. Private VLANs can be used on top of bilateral or multi-lateral peering too.

Yes. With .1Q tags, a port can participate on both VLAN domains.

Yes. With .1Q tags, a port can be a part of multiple VLANs.