The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles a large chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via around 900 members (broadband ISPs, mobile operators etc.), has today revealed that they increased their connected network capacity by 21% over the past year, from 60.10Tbps (Terabits per second) in 2023, to 72.91Tbps in 2024.
The exchange, which is also today celebrating 30 years of the internet, noted that during 2024 they achieved their highest-ever network traffic, with a maximum peak of over 10.841Tbps, up from 9.229Tbps in 2023 and 7.424Tbps in 2022.
LINX has members located in more than 85 countries and offers various other products and services, such as Cloud Connect, Closed User Groups, and the Microsoft Azure Peering Service (MAPS). Over the last 12 months LINX celebrated 10 years of operations in the US through its LINX NoVA Internet Exchange in Northern Virginia. Additionally, the company took its first step into Africa with the launch of the LINX Nairobi Internet Exchange in Kenya in late 2023 and further announcements have come in 2024 with plans for LINX Mombasa and LINX Accra in 2025.
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Additionally, LINX has welcomed a host of new partners as part of its UK growth strategy, including Lunar Digital Data Centre and AtlasEdge Data Centre in Manchester. LINX also welcomed new CEO, Jennifer Holmes in November, who has been with the London Internet Exchange (LINX) since 2007. Holmes replaced Kurtis Lindqvist, who is moved to a new role as CEO and Vice President of ICANN. Previously before Lindqvist, the CEO of LINX was John Souter until 2019.
Jennifer Holmes, CEO Of LINX, said:
“Over the past three decades, the internet has transformed the way we connect, communicate, and conduct business. As the digital landscape has evolved, so too has the infrastructure that supports it. LINX has played a vital role in this journey, adapting to the increasing demand for reliable connectivity and seamless online experiences.
Our recent increase in network capacity shows our commitment to a robust and efficient internet ecosystem. This growth not only highlights our role in supporting businesses, ISPs, and content providers but also reflects the achievements of an interconnected global network.
LINX continues to sustain, grow, and optimise its services by introducing new products and pricing, ensuring it provides ongoing value for its 850+ members through flexible peering speeds and services.”
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So their capacity is 72Tbps but their peak traffic so far is 10.8Tbps? Plenty of headroom then, although I’m sure the detailed picture is more complicated. I remember when they first hit 1Tbps – seems like yesterday….
Good point. I wonder if the difference in numbers, in part, is where the traffic is going?
They should be able to handle the biggest DDoS ever.
They handle lots of traffic that doesn’t appear in the public stats.
It’s also the sum capacity of all their ports so there’ll be both capacity available on each port to avoid degradation and lots of extra ports for resilience.
The LINX LANs shouldn’t be routable so attacking them directly shouldn’t be a thing, they’ll be forwarding traffic to the unfortunate victim whose access ports will saturate well before LINX itself is an issue.
They won’t blindly forward multiple terabits across their routers to customers with 10G of capacity which helps too. I can’t remember the story with LON2 but LON1 is a routed network emulating a switched one so has extra smarts.