There has been continued growth and change in the North American NAP scene in the last two years, including new players and new exchange technology, with the mid/late-90's ATM fabrics being left behind for public exchange based on Gigabit Ethernet, and now some ventures using MPLS. Some exchanges are conducting experiments with multicast and IPv6 peering. There have also been some interconnections of different L2 exchanges, bringing a new set of challenges.
This presentation and discussion topic will be split into two sessions. The general session will comprise brief (~5 minute) updates from a handful of exchanges who have new technology developments or progress to report, followed by time for a short panel discussion between the audience and the operators.
Monday evening, a BOF session will provide an "Open House" for exchange operators who were not able to speak during the main session to introduce themselves and say a few words about what they are doing. Also, there will be an opportunity for more detailed discussion of any items that "overflow" from the general session.
Finally, it's also a great opportunity to meet up with the people who
operate the exchanges where you participate, or talk to a new exchange
that you are considering expanding to. We will probably ajourn to the bar
soon!
About the Moderator
Mike Hughes has over five years of experience in the industry. He
currently holds the position of Network Architect for the London Internet Exchange (LINX), where he
has worked for the last three years. LINX is one of the key exchanges in
Europe, and handles over 13 Gigabits per second of peering traffic over a
gigabit ethernet infrastructure. As an early adopter of new technologies,
Mike is behind a pioneering installation of 10 gigabit ethernet in an
exchange environment.
Previous to working at LINX, he held various network and engineering roles at the UK-based ISP Direct Connection (now known as Netscalibur UK). He holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Transport Management from Aston University, Birmingham, where he first got hands-on experience with the Internet via the University's VAX/VMS systems.