Leveraging IXPs to Enhance Internet Connectivity

The increasing demand for internet connectivity and domestication of data, underscores the importance of Internet Xchange Points in making connectivity more reliable and cost effective, writes Emma Okonji

Rack Centre, Africa’s Carrier and Cloud neutral Tier III data centre, last week, held the first of a series of its planned webinar for the year, where it discussed about internet connectivity and peering, with participants, stressing the need for local and regional businesses to leverage peering and interconnection through Internet Xchange Points (IXPs).

Titled ‘Interconnection and Peering: The role of IXPs and Peering to Drive Traffic Efficient Business and Ecosystem Growth in Nigeria,’ the webinar highlighted the importance of IXPs in driving business growth in Nigeria and West Africa, through reliable internet connectivity and peering.

Leading the conversation during the webinar series, the keynote speaker, and Chief Executive Officer, Internet Xchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr. Mohammed Rudman, explained that the significance of Internet Xchange Points (IXPs) in improving internet penetration cannot be overemphasized, since it helps to interconnect all the network operators towards the exchange of traffic, which is the foundation of any digital economy.

Rudman noted that IXPs remains a critical piece of infrastructure needed to help improve internet access by ensuring that internet traffic is localised, making it faster and affordable.

Internet Access, Connectivity

According to Rudman, in Africa, internet access is predominantly via mobile devices, and the Internet Xchange Points (IXPs) connect all the network operators in the ecosystem, for the exchange of internet traffic.

Based on the increasing demand for data, there is need for increased data centres and this gave rise for data centre investments in Nigeria, he said, adding that IXPs have become the cornerstone that is driving internet connectivity.

He disclosed that 90 per cent of internet traffic in Nigeria was mainly on mobile devices stating that there is a need for traffic to shift to other devices. He identified infrastructure, interconnectivity, content application, and cloud as the critical technical infrastructure required to support internet ecosystem growth in the region.

Internet Xchange Point Impact

According to Rudman, IXPs have formed network access points, through which institutions and organisations can connect to the internet. He said different studies have shown the great impact of Internet Xchange Points to the internet ecosystem.

“In Nigeria, locally domesticated internet traffic has increased from 30 per cent to 70 per cent within the last seven years. As of today, Nigeria is at level two, where at least 70 per cent of the internet traffic from major service providers is connected to the IXPN, while only about 30 per cent of internet traffic is connected to international exchanges.

“The impact of domestication of data shows that in 2012, Nigeria was exchanging only 300 megabits per second, but in 2020, it increased to 125 gigabits per second, which amounts to saving up to $40 million annually. However, in 2023, Nigeria is currently exchanging about 400 gigabits per second, which is an increase by over 200 per cent from 2020. Currently we have about 84 per cent of global subscribers that use mobile phones to connect to the internet.

From the fixed broadband subscribers, we have only 16 per cent of the total global internet subscriptions and the 16 per cent generates 80 per cent of internet traffic in Nigeria,” Rudman said.

He added that IXPN, for instance, had been keeping Nigeria internet domesticated in Nigeria, and it has been able to domesticate local internet to 70 per cent, reduce cost for access to local content, and enhance local connectivity and improve internet experience for end users. “IXPN also provides backup links for internet service providers. End users will be able to access the internet much easier and the internet is much safe to use, based on what IXPN is doing in the internet ecosystem,” Rudman added.   

Addressing the benefits of Internet Xchange Points to businesses, one of the speakers, andCEO, Swifttalk, Mr. Austin Uwudia, said the benefits of IXPs to businesses remained enormous. Using the Internet Xchange Point of Nigeria as an example, he said before now, internet traffic would be generated in Nigeria, but it would first be routed to London where the data was been hosted before returning to Nigeria, which according to him, is a lot of cost. He however said with the domestication of internet traffic, through IXPN, the internet traffic generated in Nigeria, remains in Nigeria, thereby reducing latency time as well as reducing the cost business.

Speaking on how Nigerian businesses can leverage on IXPs and peering for growth, Edge Strategy Manager at Meta, Mr. Ben Ryall, said by connecting to IXPs that keep internet traffic local, Nigerian businesses will be able to reduce cost of operation since their internet traffic will be domesticated within Nigeria.

Ecosystem Growth  

While stressing the need for internet ecosystem growth across regions, another speaker, who is the Peering and Interconnect Specialist at NAP Africa, Yolandi Cloete, said: “Africa has the potential to do things differently from the way it is done in other countries and still grow their businesses in the ecosystem. There could be few challenges that come with different government policies across the African regions in terms of cross-border connectivity, but with the one carrier from an IXP, all of that could be addressed. Therefore there is need for awareness creation and education on network peering to enhance business growth.  

Partner Manager at DE-CIX, Mr. Darwin Da Costa, spoke of the need for businesses to expanded their infrastructure base in order to connect to the internet

Rudman however said for any business to connect to any IXP, such business must be registered, acquire the autonomous system number from an IXP and also get IP addresses from Internet Registry.

“Businesses must also have close physical connectivity capacity to enable them connect easily to any IXP. Businesses also need expanded equipment like routers and switches for interconnection and peering. Businesses that have data centres and large network, needs to interconnect and peer with an IXP in Nigeria in order to domesticate their data, enhance service delivery reduce cost of operation, and have backup to address redundancy,” Rudman said.

Multiple IXPs

Head, Interconnection and Exchange Platform at Rack centre, Mr. Obinna Adumike, spoke about the need for multiple IXPs in the regional markets in order to improve the quality and reliability of the internet. 

According to him, Rack Centre launched its Internet Xchange Point called AF-CIX in January this year, to increase local content distribution.

The AF-CIX, which is hosted at Rack Centre, is built on three pillars: Content, Localisation and Distribution.

AF-CIX, according to Adumike has security architecture that checks Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and ensure that the network is safe for all service providers that are on the Rack Centre network and also ensure that businesses invest less on security.

“The AF-CIX can provide public and private peering and networking. The idea is to expose global IXPs to the Nigerian consumers, reduce cost of running internet connectivity business and lower latency rate. With AF-CIX, we provide connections to all the IXPs on our facilities, and we have access to portfolio of cloud content providers. Through the platform, users can get connected to all the submarine cables that are berthed in Nigeria. With AF-CIX, businesses will get exposed to top tier business providers and enterprise business providers within and outside of Nigeria,” Adumike said.