About - Rural Broadband Internet Exchange
An Internet Exchange for every town
Allied-IX is a Public Benefit B Corporation that deploys and maintains open access, neutral Internet Exchanges. The initiative is a partnership between Allied-IX and DE-CIX, for operations & support. These IXs allow for open peering and local caching of content and applications, resulting in a reduced need for Internet transit, lower costs, and lower latency for all users — a faster, better, more cost-effective and secure Internet.
Why does my town need an Internet Exchange?
An Internet Exchange (IX) is the infrastructure through which Internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks (CDNs), and other networks exchange Internet traffic between their networks. Without such interconnection between networks, any time anyone needs to access the Internet, even locally, the traffic must travel out of town to the source of the content (which is often a very long distance in the case of rural areas), get the information, and send it back. This is expensive and inefficient. With a local Internet Exchange Point, key CDNs and content providers have a space to share their content locally. Networks are able to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more third party networks. This results in lower costs, greater speeds, and a reduced need for Internet transit — a faster, better, more cost-effective and secure Internet.
Real-world initiatives and research
How can an IX benefit my community?
Watch Connected Nation’s 1-minute video explaining what they do and why the work they do matters.
“When to peer and when to use transit”
An empirical study by Interconnection giant, DE-CIX, comparing and quantifying the performance differences between transit and peering interconnection strategies.
“Building, not just bringing, the internet in Iqaluit”
Read Jacques Latour’s article on how an IX is changing the lives of the residents of a remote town in Northern Canada.
Find your IX or apply for
an IX in your town
