An internet-exchange is literally a box joining up the networks of providers. Example: that people at the UT, all clients of SURFnet, can e-mail with XS4all or Worldonline customers is due to such an internet-exchange box.
A better way to describe the enormous significance of such a device is with a metaphor: an exchange is to internet-providers and their customers what an airport is to airlines and their passengers. With comparable disastrous results when unavailable: when the exchange in Amsterdam (the Ams-IX) crashes, internet traffic in the Netherlands is impossible.
The node in Twente, working title NDIX, should be realised at the start of 2001, according to Jeroen van den Lagemaat, director of the exchange in Enschede. The new junction doubles the national internet-infrastructure and abolishes the present single-point-of-failure-situation. The NDIX will, in the long run, be extended to Gronau, just across the border with Germany. NDIX is short for Nederlands-Duitse Internet Exchange (Dutch-German internet-exchange).
The initiative for the branch in Twente is carried by the council in Enschede, the Development Organisation Overijssel (OOM) and the University of Twente. The latter made 200,000 guilder available last week. 'The NDIX will be very important strategically for our university,' says Sjoerd van Tongeren, staff member for policy at the UT.
The NDIX should attract large providers to Enschede. The exchange box may be small, but to link successfully providers should install servers and routers near the junction. A router is a device that determines the best route for network-traffic between two points.
About 85 providers are linked to the Amsterdam IX at the moment. According to the CIV about 190,000 gigabyte of traffic is routed through the Ams-IX every month. For comparison: the UT uses - maybe better: devours - about 16,000 gigabyte of SURFnet traffic. To house, manage and secure all the routers and servers a spacious, secure and strategically located site is needed.
And it exists. NDIX will be housed in the old building of the Nederlandsche Bank, opposite the main entrance to the campus. The previous occupant, Techno Activity Center Da Vinci, has already moved out. The heart of the building is formed by a gigantic safe, in which providers can put up their routers and servers for a fee.
The manager is Virtu, a 'secure webhoster and co-locator' from Enschede.
Managing director Thijs Stalenhoef (23): 'We offer the providers upkeep, accommodation and optimal security. Especially the last is a unique selling point. Everybody has recognised the vulnerability of internet traffic.'
'An internet-exchange can be fairly well-secured against hacking', the young entrepreneur explains. 'But it is easy to put everything out of order physically. We can offer our clients a heavily secured safe. In the United States they are building comparable armoured sites all over the country.'
About the upkeep: 'Ams-IX reaches an availability of 99-point-something percent. We will aim towards the perfect hundred. The NDIX should be available 365 and a quarter days per year.'
