A unique distributed Internet Exchange (IX) for remote and rural networks in Scotland and the United Kingdom, RemIX, has won the “Future-proof and quality of service” category of the European Commission’s (EC) annual 2016 European Broadband Awards event, which was held on Monday.
At present most Internet Exchanges, such as the UK’s primary London Internet Exchange (LINX), tend to exist in central urban areas where strong network infrastructure can help to ensure high levels of connectivity. By comparison rural areas often the lack the necessary infrastructure for such exchanges.
However RemIX does things differently and has been designed to work in the community network environment, which makes it easier to establish high-quality and more affordable backhaul connectivity for remote regions and small access networks.
RemIX Project Overview
This is probably the world’s first distributed and wireless Internet Exchange Point (IXP). The features of RemIX will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has participated in a regular Internet Exchange Point (IXP). This is by design. RemIX is designed to mirror the benefits of IXPs in urban regions in under-serviced regions.
The encapsulation of small community networks in Autonomous Systems (ASes) means that community networks can present a uniform interface to a transit provider, cooperate, and share resources. RemIX provides these benefits to members without sacrificing their independence, which is a necessary attribute for long-term sustainability.
The project, which has also received support from the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling in Scotland, was on Monday named as one of just five winners from a short-list of 66 EU projects. Sadly it was the only UK project to win, although we didn’t have any others in the short-list.
The Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Günther H. Oettinger, said, “Our ambition is to have gigabit connectivity, 5G and better internet in rural areas. Today I am awarding the best European Broadband projects of 2016. The success of achieving the previous broadband targets only encourages us to raise the bar and jump higher.”
Winners don’t get much in the way of a prize, except for some extra publicity and a platform to share their approach with others.
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