IXP.mk – University neutral IXP initiative Initiative for neutral IXP in Macedonia

About me Programmer by heart 7 years ago was asked to be part of the HPC project on FCSE Experience in networking for 10+ years Started exploring the RIPE Atlas project 4 years ago Working on creating an IXP in Macedonia for 2 years now

Some history Initial idea started before RIPE SEE4 (Belgrade 2015) MATRIX project – dead in the water for 10 years. Good cooperation with major ISP December 2016 – FCSE starts the project “Research platform (testbed) for high availability internet connections”, - 3 year project for cooperation and research of possible ways to improve connectivity to between major ISP and University networks December 2016 – First meeting with help from RIPE/ISOC for getting key players on board March 2017-December 2017 – Start the initiative

The idea Have a neutral entity to host/run the IXP Start with few small/medium ISP and Universities Education to management in order to get them interested and join the IXP Run it as a non-profit IXP (as long as the project has resources from the Faculty) and design a model to make it self sustainable Create a non-formal community around the project which will then become NOG.mk

The idea (part 2) Improve the University Fiber network (upgrade to 10G capacity) – DONE… Install RIPE Atlas Anchor @ FCSE - DONE… Have initial plan for the infrastructure of the IXP – DONE … Have several key players on board 2 ISPs 2 GOV systems 1 University Sign MoU with key players in order to join the project – 2 MoU signed, 2 more in progress

The idea (part 3) Install IXP manager, install 2 RS VM – test done with private AS Get AS + IP space for IXP and start making connections – RIPE ??? Form the MK NOG as a independent legal entity (probably under the University umbrella) Bring in the content players (Google, Facebook,...) Bring root DNS instances (DNS service for MK users is terrible – most advanced users use Google dns or OpenDNS) Switch from IXP initiative to a full IXP (legal procedures)

The future The Faculty (FCSE) has the staff (experts, engineers) for the project Some of us are very influential in ISP industry and can help bring more ISPs to the IXP Big companies can see the benefit and help with donations Cooperation with other projects: GEANT, eduroam, RIPE Atlas... Cooperation with the industry: Big transit providers, hardware vendors, Content providers …

vladislav.bidikov@finki.ukim.mk @bidikov Connect with us – http://ixp.mk vladislav.bidikov@finki.ukim.mk @bidikov