North American Network Operators Group

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Re: florida ix(en) facing south

  • From: Jeff Barrows
  • Date: Thu Dec 21 12:57:49 2000

  A facility that has rich connectivity to a lot of
  networks (ISPs, Carriers, MANs, etc.) would be highly
  useful in that area-- specifically because of the
  cable heads.  Whether or not it becomes a major
  location for high-speed exchange among the six or
  seven major North American NSPs is another question.

  Recently, legislation put into place that made it
  even more interesting [with financial incentives]
  to set up an "exchange point" in Miami.

  These are the two major efforts:

  - NAP of the Americas (NoTA, a group initiative,
    led by some regional ISPs/ASPs/etc, and having some
    real-estate/developer connections.

  - Miami Internet Exchange (FloridaMIX, a Bell South
    initiative for a distributed exchange.)

  Last time I checked, both of these had essentially the
  same objective, with differences in the areas of
  architecture and personal interests.  Neither of the
  two sides seemed to be led by anyone with any real ISP
  peering experience at the time.

  At one point, Global Crossing issued a press release
  stating that they were going to build a Miami NAP as
  well, though I think they may have fell into the
  NoTA camp.

  They were squabbling quite a bit a few months ago--
  not sure how things have progressed.

  - check out http://internetcoast.com/nap.php3 ...which
    seemed to be biased towards the NoTA side in the
    past, and hasn't been updated in a while.

  - as usual, when one reads that a company has signed
    up as a NAP participant, one should not make any
    assumptions that 'NAP participant' means that the
    network will do anything specific at all. in my past,
    and on more than one occasion, i have seen that
    indicating any level of interest can quickly lead
    to your name being used as a 'participant.'  (not
    saying that either of these two have done that.) 
    ...it often turns out that major networks appear at
    "exchange points" only to aggregate customers, and
    not to peer. (not that this is a bad thing at all--
    it's quite useful to not have to pay for loops on
    transit connections.)

  For what it's worth, I am incredibly interested in
  such a facility in that area, and will be looking
  @ these efforts again closely in the next few weeks.
  I am hoping that things have progressed, and that
  the two-camps bit has been sorted out.

 - jsb

Note: Everything above is based on public information,
and is presented along with my personal opinion. ;->


On Thu, 21 Dec 2000, Randy Bush wrote:
> i get rumors of one or more exchange points being built in south florida
> where there may be good participation by latin and caribbean networks.
> any good gossip, pointers, ...?  any choices which are not carrier jails?
> 
> randy
>