The Internet exchange point (IXP) in Mexico
By Adina Moloman
Sources: Global Internet Policy Initiative , Maquila Portal, www.gigaom.com
This month the Mexican Federal Government, through the Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT), spread the news over the first IXP (Internet Exchange Point) in Mexico.
The Internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to exchange Internet traffic between their networks (autonomous systems) by means of mutual peering agreements, making it a strategic convergence point for data network which allow traffic to be exchanged without cost.
Mexico is the only OECD member country without any domestic Internet exchange capacity. A significant portion of Mexican content is hosted outside the country.
The traffic in Mexico ends up being routed through the US and in a lesser degree through its Latin American neighbors and European trading partners.
The advantages of ITS: cost effectiveness. Having a decrease in distance yields an increase in speed and network capacity, improving the customer experience for local content, gaming, file sharing and latency-sensitive applications like voice and video.
The lack of domestic traffic exchange has had a visible effect on Mexican transit pricing.
This is partly explained by the dominance of Telmex, which has been seeking to extend its domain over telephony to Internet infrastructure.
A social association will operate the IXP in Mexico, consisting of six members, named Consortium for Internet Traffic Exchange.
This IXP infrastructure will lower the cost of transit for businesses in every Mexico Corporation or for any other consumers and will speed local data exchange. It is also helping create redundant networks and diminish the power of monopoly telecommunications providers and encouraging the development of locally hosted content and services. The local traffic will stay local and sensitive data managed by governments and corporations is not subject to inspection by other governments.
