A design of a next generation IX using MPLS technology

An IX (Internet Exchange) is a mechanism to interconnect many networks to each other. Currently, an ISP (Internet service provider) establishes numerous interconnections to other ISP. Although 'private peering' is one way for an ISP to interconnect to other ISP with individual links, connecting to an IX is a more efficient way to establish and maintain a large number of peerings (or 'public peerings') with other participating ISP. Currently, two major IX architectures exist. One uses LAN (local area network) technologies such as FDDI, Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet to interconnect ISP to each other. The other IX architecture is based on ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology, which uses PVC (permanent virtual circuits) between participating ISP. Both LAN and ATM based IX have several problems, for example, bandwidth limitation, operational cost, less scalability, and dependency on data-link mediums. We propose a next generation IX architecture based on MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) technology: MPLS provides a data-link independent virtual path, called LSR (label switched path), between MPLS capable routers. MPLS technology is also useful with a traffic engineering capability. We apply this MPLS technology to an IX. A MPLS-based IX has the advantages of independency of data-link media, unlimited bandwidth, scalability, and widely distributed features.