CATNIX

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Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point

File:Catnix logo corporatiu.jpg
Abbreviation	CATNIX
Formation	1999
Founded at	Gran Capità, Annexus Building
Type	Technology Infrastructure
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	41°23′13.9″N 2°06′39.7″E Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed. Annexus Building, 41°21′15.1″N 2°08′12.3″E Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed. Equinix and bitNAP
Location	Barcelona
Region	Catalonia
Services	Peering and additional IXP services
Membership	Telecommunications operators and ISP
Official language	Catalan, Spanish, English
Owner	Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya
Website	www.catnix.net/en

The Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point. (CATNIX) is an infrastructure that connects network operators and Internet Service Providers (ISP) to facilitate traffic exchange in Catalonia. CATNIX speeds up communications, keeping local traffic local.

In Catalonia, CATNIX also serves as a point of exchange between the commercial and the academic and research internet. From this IXP, different network operators and ISP connect to the Anella Científica and RedIRIS.

CATNIX has three different points of presence (PoP) in Barcelona and its metropolitan area: Campus Nord, at CSUC facilities; Equinix, at Zona Franca; and bitNAP, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. CSUC verifies all administrative and technical requirements that future entities must fulfill to connect to this Catalan IXP.

CATNIX is one of the founding members of the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX). Indeed, CATNIX participates in the MANRS global initiative to promote routing security and efficiency.

Objective

CATNIX objective is to locally route internet traffic so that end users have a better experience by reducing the path the information must go through since it is requested (via web, ftp, etc.) until it is received.

Members

The following operators and Internet Service Providers (ISP) are CATNIX members:

• Acens
• Adam
• Adamo
• Akamai
• Altecom
• Andorra Telecom
• Anella Científica
• bitNAP
• BT
• Claranet
• CloudFlare
• Colt
• CTTI
• e-Ports
• Easynet
• Equinix
• Eurona
• Google
• guifi.net
• Hurricane Electric
• Iberbanda
• Jazztel
• Labelgrup
• Microsoft
• Nexica
• NTTE
• Orange
• Orange Business Services
• RedIRIS
• Sarenet
• T-Systems
• Telefónica
• Vodafone
• VozTelecom

History

CATNIX was created in 1999 as a result of the Information Society Strategy Plan called “Catalunya en Xarxa”, an initiative from the Government of Catalonia and Localret to “set the bases and define the actions to turn Catalonia into a leading actor within the Information Society”. One of the proposed actions was the creation of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Catalonia.

The agreement for the creation of CATNIX was signed in April 7th, 1999, in the Government of Catalonia (Pati dels Tarongers), at the initiative of the former Supercomputing Center of Catalonia (CESCA) and the sponsorship of the Commissioner for the Information Society to interconnect telecommunications operators, internet providers and the Catalan scientific community.

Government bodies

CSUC’s Government Council has delegated the management of CATNIX to the CATNIX Strategic Commission.  The Commission is formed by one representative of each entity connected to the Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point; the representative of CSUC’s Government Council in the field of Information Society (or delegate), acting as President; and CSUC’s Administration and Finance Director, acting as Secretary.

Decisions made by the Commission require two-thirds majority, except for:

• Admission of new entities that will be accepted by defined criteria.
• Changes in this Agreement, that will require unanimity.

The President calls this Commission at least once a year, 15 days in advance, during the last quarter. The objective is to evaluate the functioning of the service and to approve the annual payment for the following year. The Commission can also be called when at least one third of the entities connected to the IXP request it.

Apart from this Strategic Commission, since 1999 CATNIX counts on a Data Exchange Technical Commission to analyze and discuss issues related to the functioning of the service regarding data. Notwithstanding the powers of this Commission, the regular management of this IXP is carried out by CSUC.

Technical features

Each of the three Points of Presence (PoP) that form the CATNIX infrastructure -CSUC, Equinix and bitNAP- is equipped with an Arista 7280SE switch. Connection between CSUC and Equinix is done via three different links of 10 Gbps each, having diversified optical equipment. Connection between Equinix and bitNAP is done via a link of 10 Gbps.

CATNIX offers interfaces of 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps. It also offers aggregate ports at these speeds.

Throughout these three PoP, CATNIX allows private peerings among its members, apart from the common exchanges at the IXP. There are two possibilities: separated VLAN or dedicated circuits.

CATNIX uses a congestion detection process towards maintaining service quality. In that way, any undersized line from any member can be detected by this method, preventing service degradation. CATNIX notifies the affected entity of mild congestion. When congestion is severe, CATNIX recommends the entity to upgrade its capacity.

Switchers have a switching capacity of 1,44 Tbps at Campus Nord and Equinix, and of 1,36 Tbps at bitNAP, and have 48 fiber ports of 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps, expandable to 72 in Campus Nord and Equinix, and to 56 at bitNAP, whose capacity can increase up to 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps. These switchers also have redundant power supplies and ultradeep buffers to facilitate multimedia traffic without any loss, for example between ports at different speeds.

Additional services

CATNIX provides all members a wide range of added value services: multicast, IPv6, NTP Server, IXP-Watch Server, bogon prefixes server, F-root name server, Looking Glass, Out-of-band Access, J-root name server, .com and .net replicas, 24x7 Service, Speedtest, L-root name server, RIPE RIS, Monitoring Panel, LISP DDT root, M-Lab pod, Route-server, Protection of the peering LAN and Peering Matrix

References

This article "CATNIX" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:CATNIX. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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