LINX Helps Scotland Launch Own Dedicated Internet Exchange IXP

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), a central hub for most of the Internet traffic that both comes into and goes out of the United Kingdom, has announced that Scotland’s first dedicated Internet Exchange Point (IXP) will go live within the next few days. Wales will be next.

The IXScotland project, which has been under development since earlier this year (here), should benefit Scotland by keeping “local traffic local” and thus reducing latency times and improving connection performance for networks and their customers across the country.

The new IXP itself is hosted at Pulsant’s South Gyle data centre in Edinburgh (formerly Scolocate) and has been built using hardware from Extreme’s Summit X460 Series (i.e. a high-end Gigabit Ethernet switch).

John Souter, CEO of LINX, said:

“IXScotland is a real step forward for the Internet community in Scotland and the UK as a whole. The exchange will allow networks to stop ‘tromboning’ traffic to London and back again, and will help increase resilience by creating a new centre for interconnection in the UK.”

John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for the Scottish Government, said:

“We are delighted to welcome the establishment of a dedicated Internet Exchange Point for Scotland which will speed up Internet access for businesses and individuals. I want to recognise the key contribution of LINX, who have worked with the industry and Scottish Government to make this happen.”

Existing LINX members will be able to connect to the new IXP without having to cough up for additional membership fees. Furthermore, to help grow the exchange and “build a critical mass of connected networks“, all available port speeds, from 100M to 10G, will be free at launch until 2015.

In related news we’re also hearing that the Cardiff Council and DCMS are sponsoring plans to build a similar Internet Exchange in Wales (Welsh Internet Exchange Point).