When the Asian Development Bank examined the Internet landscape in Central Asia in 2015, it noted that the region had some of the highest connectivity costs in the world. It recommended investing in Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) to drive down access costs, improve quality of service, and make the Internet more resilient.
Half a dozen years after that report, though, not that much had improved in the region.
So, to increase awareness of the benefits of peering, and to encourage the development of more IXPs in the region, we teamed up with RIPE NCC and Euro-IX to run a series of online peering events during 2021.
This four-part virtual event series attracted more than 200 people, and discussed the importance of IXP development, why national interconnection is important, what is needed to implement an IXP, and the potential challenges people might face along the way.
We also examined traffic flows, tools, resources, and the various actors involved in the IXP development chain.
To share what we discussed, we recorded each event in the series:
- The benefits of an IXP: The importance of building technical communities that support building the internet—watch now
- What is needed to start peering in Central Asia: The tools and resources you need to start peering, how to draw research and education networks, how to bring foreign networks to peer at your exchange—and what to do when things go wrong—watch now
- Developing an IXP in Central Asia: How transit works in peering and root servers, and how to convince content delivery networks to join your exchange point—watch now
- Where the traffic flows: Traffic routes, volumes, and capacity movement in Central Asia and what this means for peering—watch now
The feedback from participants was that the events were highly valuable, so we will continue the series in 2022 and will explore new topics and exchanges to advance peering in the region.