New Style. New Thinking. - London Internet Exchange

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Apr 23, 2018 - 04-05 LINX Network News. 06-07 Feature article: LINX100 - A Century of. Events Driving Internet. Growth.
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Ho tli nx New Style. New Thinking. HotLINX is back in a revised and expanded format, with lots of great content including industry news stories, guest articles, technical guides and event reports. We have the latest on the LON2 network switch-over where the Technology team are performing the final checks ahead of the planned launch in mid-April. Elsewhere there’s a feature on the 100th LINX membership conference and an interview with Telehouse Europe’s Michelle Reid, a recent recipient of the Conspicuous Contribution to LINX Award.

Contents

Editorial Jeremy Orbell HotLINX Editor

04-05 LINX Network News 06-07 Feature article: LINX100 - A Century of Events Driving Internet Growth 08

2018 AGM & Board Election Preview

09

LINX America Update

10-11

Partner & Member News

12-13

Industry News

14-15

Feature article: A New Angle on LINX branding

17

Sponsor article: Layer-0 Automation with Robotics in the Data Centre

18

Public Affairs and Internet Security Update

19

Internet Governance Review

20-21

‘In the Spotlight’ Interview: Michelle Reid, Telehouse

22

LINX Associate Members

23

Guest Article by Don Hollander: Universal Acceptance of Internet Domain Names

24-25 LINX Events 27

Internet Industry Events

Publishing London Internet Exchange Limited Trinity Court, Trinity Street, Peterborough, UK PE1 1DA Editor: Jeremy Orbell Telephone: +44 1733 207705 Editorial & Content: [email protected] Printing: Sudbury Print No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publishers. HotLINX © London Internet Exchange 2018

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Welcome to HotLINX52! Well, this is all a bit different isn’t it! After five years we’ve given HotLINX a complete makeover to coincide with the exchange’s recent rebranding. As you flick through the pages of the new HotLINX it’s clear that the overall layout has radically changed but some sections should still seem familiar. We’ve done this in response to reader feedback and a desire to give better coverage of the stories that members want to see. All the key exchange stats, that were previously on the back page, now sit alongside John’s CEO intro article on page 3. Interestingly this reflects how the CEO and stats update works at the start of our quarterly member conferences which neatly leads me to talk about our special feature on our member conferences on pages 6 and 7. Our news pages have more emphasis on LINX specific articles with dedicated sections for members, partners and regional peering. We’ve broadened the scope of our events coverage with the inclusion of an in-depth calendar indicating where you can meet with LINX staff. This is easily found on the back cover. We still have a strong focus on governance and regulation issues and we are delighted that the Internet Society have agreed to continue to submit updates on their activities. In addition we also have a special guest article on Universal Acceptance of Internet Domain Names from Don Hollander, Secretary General of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group plus a fascinating ‘In the Spotlight’ interview with LINX Award winner Michelle Reid of Telehouse. We hope you enjoy this new issue of HotLINX as much we have in putting it together. As always, tell us what you think by emailing [email protected]

Uniting Networks. Igniting the Internet. By John Souter

LINX Chief Executive Officer We are now well into the new year and have reached some pretty remarkable milestones. We recently achieved the landmark of 1000 10GigE member-facing ports and also celebrated our 100th member conference. At LINX100 I was personally delighted to welcome to the stage five of the seven recipients of the Conspicuous Contribution to LINX Award. Sadly neither Ondrej Filip or Dr Richard Clayton were able to join us in person to complete the set, both being located several time zones away that day, but still thanked us for the invitation.

Stats Update Our LINX stats section includes information regarding applications, ports, plus other notable figures including traffic and member breakdowns for the UK regional exchanges and LINX NoVA.

779

LINX Members

822

Member ASNs

76

Member Countries

22

New applications in 2018

105 1896 Being stood alongside Michelle Reid, Grahame Davies, Nigel Titley, Clive Feather and Raza Rizvi on that occasion reminded me how far we’ve come and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved so far. It’s been quite a journey. On a different note I would also like to use this HotLINX introduction to mention two special guests who visited LINX recently. Pictured left with myself and LINX CMO Kurtis Lindqvist, are Muhammed Rudman and Jacob Dagunduro of IXPN, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria. IXPN are currently benefitting from the liberalisation of telecoms in the country and spent several days with us to discuss plans on how best to develop the exchange in the future. As LINX was one of the earliest exchanges in Europe, and one of the earliest in the world to mature into an economically viable state, we have been asked many times to share our experience over the years. I firmly believe in doing this, as what is good for peering around the world is also good for LINX and the LINX membership. We all have a vested interest in the good of peering, and we do our best to support this in all of the ways we can.

Applications in 2017 Connected member ports

1015

Member-facing 10GigE ports

123

Member-facing 100GigE ports

22.91 540421 683920 79.01%

Terrabits of connected capacity Routes peered at LINX (maximal) Global routing table routes Percentage of global routes available at LINX

LINX Manchester

LINX NoVA

78.15Gbps

25.63Gbps

Peak Traffic

95

Peak Traffic

47

Connected ASNs

Connected ASNs

LINX Cardiff

LINX Scotland

1.13Gbps

708.9Mbps

Peak Traffic

24

Connected ASNs

Peak Traffic

27

Connected ASNs

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LINX News

LON2 Switchover Stage Nearing Completion

LON2 Edgecore/IPInfusion Testing

The LINX Technology team are now scheduling bringing the new LON2 network into production. They are performing the final commissioning and validation of the switches, installations and configurations, ahead of the launch in mid-April. As mentioned in Mike Hellers Technology update on page 5, LINX has now completed its comprehensive testing phase of the software. The scope of the testing phase of the project included the following: • • • • • • • •

Stability and performance of both hardware and software Key Exchange feature functionality ConneXions, MAC Security, Quarantine Convergence times EVPN/VXLAN features Target topology Systems and manageability Key processes (Provisioning, Quarantine, MAC Change)

LINX Telecomunications Network Architect, Flemming Heino, says: “We have had the core of the network running since December, as a stability check utilising half of the switches of the initial build, with the remaining switches being used in our staging lab for testing. As the next step, starting the week of the 16th April, we will be binging the NNI between the existing Extreme LAN infrastructure and the new LON2 into service. From this point on we will be treating the new network as live.” Flemming added: “After further validation of the stability and reachability over that link, we will be scheduling the first set of customer migrations in Equinix Slough. There will be a one week stability and validation period before we starting the migration of subsequent sites.”

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LINX News In Brief LINX UK Regional Exchanges renamed

Following consultations with the steering committees of IXManchester, IXScotland and IXCardiff a proposal to change the UK regional exchange names has been approved. This means that these locations will in future be formally known as LINX Manchester, LINX Scotland and LINX Cardiff This strategic decision allows us to clarify and emphasise that the exchanges are all LINX specific sites which can all provide the broad range of benefits that LINX has to offer. It also adds consistency as the LINX UK exchanges will now follow the same format as used by the LINX NoVA exchange in Northern Virginia, USA.

LINX member portal launched

The LINX website now offers members access to an enhanced member portal. This includes key peering and member data, the LINX route server, traffic stats, as well as the LINX looking glass. With new features being added regularly it is hoped members will find this tool increasingly useful in running their networks now, and in the future. The portal can be viewed via the member drop down menu on the LINX website, but for quick access please bookmark the following link: https://portal.linx.net

Network News Mike Hellers Network Engineering Manager

Route Server Prefix Validation

Following the update we provided at LINX100, we have now successfully implemented prefix validation across all of our Route Servers covering every Peering LAN. Even though we have seen a significant percentage of prefixes marked as invalid, and as a consequence not being propagated through the route servers, we have seen no noticeable impact on overall traffic. During this first phase of deployment, the IRR data used for validation is updated once per day, but we expect to increase the frequency in later releases. Over the coming months, we will continue to develop and improve the setup, starting with further automation of the config generation, the addition of RPKI validation into the toolchain and inclusion of additional data sources (i.e. ARIN data). Last but not least, we do also have plans to make the results about validated or rejected prefixes available through the member portal.

LON2 Edgecore/IP Infusion Testing Phase

Testing of the latest IP Infusion OcNOS software versions has now been completed enabling us to roll out a productionready release during the first weeks of April, with member migration to begin shortly after.

The preparation of the sites began in September, and a number of Edgecore switches were installed at the different sites. These switches form the core of the new network, but we have also included at least one edge switch at each of the locations. This means that we have a network running in parallel to the existing Extreme based network. Work on all internal systems required to manage and monitor the network was completed during the first half of February.

AS5459 / LINX Transit Network

In early 2018 we began a project to replace our ageing AS5459 network. This network provides transit to our offices and systems but also hosts some associate members. As it is a network which had grown gradually over the past 15 years, it was over-complicated and relied on hardware which was no longer under any reasonable support. The much-simplified network consists of a small number of Juniper MX routers. The new setup will also allow us to increase the bandwidth if required, and also provide us with better mitigation options during DoS attacks.

New LINX Connections Here is a list of new LINX members who have connected over the last six months. In all, there have been 37 new connections from 17 different territories. In addition to 13 new UK connections, a further 10 have been added in Europe. These are based in France (2), Norway (2), Poland (2), Austria, The Netherlands, Romania and Russia. Further afield members have connected from the USA (6), Bhutan, Canada, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Zambia. 24Shells AS55081 Atende Software AS57811 atom86 AS8455 Bhost Inc AS60011 Charterhouse Voice & Data AS44503 Chevron AS7862 Cloudhelix Limited AS62227 Community Fibre AS201838 Connexin Ltd AS199775 Emizon Networks AS197529 Fastly AS54113 ICTGlobe Management AS37239 Indosat Singapore AS4761 Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Science / National Research Center Kurchatov AS59624 nic.at GmbH AS1921 AS196844 Poznan Supercomputing AS205402 Intercity Technology Internet Harbor Int. AS64096 AS5587 Itility Limited AS202793 Octet Solutions AS8953 Orange Romania AS55818 PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa Ranston Ltd AS101218 Spectron Services Limited AS40992 AS27471 Symantec Security (UK) Tashi Infocomm Limited AS38740 The Stravin Group AS7289 Transdata AS29479 Triton Digital Canada Inc. AS13360 Vente-Privee AS60350 Vidscale Inc. AS47254 Village Networks AS204598 VMHaus Enterprise AS136620 Vodat International AS50023 Waycom International AS30889 Xfiber AS8896 Zamtel AS37154

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LINX100

Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th February 2018 LINX member conferences have been an integral part of the LINX community calendar since 1994. As we celebrate our 100th meeting at the Park Plaza Victoria in London we take a brief look back at how LINX member meetings have changed over the years and highlight some of the key developments in the exchange’s history.

A Century of Events Driving Internet Growth

It’s no exaggeration to say that there have been many pivotal decisions affecting the very future of LINX that have been played out at member meetings. In 2000 a very heated debate took place - known in LINX circles as the ‘schism’ - that could’ve seen the exchange demutualised and turned into a traditional profit-led organisation. Former Chairman, Grahame Davies, summarised these events at LINX100. Had the original proposal succeeded, it would have created a very different LINX to the one we know today. Members ultimately vetoed the move, pledging to continue with the ethos of collaboration that led to the exchange being created in the first place. In another LINX100 talk former board member Simon Lockhart looked into how early iterations of the LINX MoU were making life difficult for particular types of networks to join LINX, notably the BBC. This was a complex issue that took some time to resolve but ultimately opened up the possibility of peering in London to the world. More than a decade later, LINX members were looking at new territories and markets outside its London heartland leading to a focus on regional peering, not just in Britain, but overseas in North America. It has been by making challenging decisions such as these that LINX has remained at the forefront of the Internet industry for very nearly 25 years.

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LINX05 29th November 1995 Thistle Hotel, Brighton The very first LINX meeting was held at the University of London Computer Centre on the 5th August 1994. This gathering actually pre-dates the formation of LINX itself which wasn’t formally established until the following November. Early meetings were usually arranged on an ad hoc basis but between 1996 and 1998 they were staged every two months. The first conference to take place over more than one day was LINX24 at the Copthorne Tara Hotel in West London in 1999. This event is also notable for starting the current practice of staging quarterly two day events in the months of February, May, August and November.

LINX Meetings A Brief History In the early days LINX adopted a far more nomadic approach for hosting its meetings with the first event staged outside England being LINX14 at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin in May 1997. Other locations included Edinburgh (LINX22), Frankfurt in Germany (LINX25) plus a venue well-known to long-time RIPE attendees, the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam (LINX28). The last meeting to be held overseas was LINX33 in Paris which incidentally, was the first conference to be attended by current CEO, John Souter, who has missed just one meeting since due to illness! Following that excursion to France LINX went on to stage 40 consecutive meetings in London from LINX34 in August 2001 until LINX73 in May 2011. The August meeting that year was held in Windsor beginning a pattern of holding the summer conference in venues around the UK. Manchester and Birmingham have both staged events twice with the first member meeting to be held outside of England in 13 years being LINX90 in the Welsh capital, Cardiff. This was a notable occasion as it saw LINX’s Executive Chairman, Murray Steele, attend a LINX member meeting for the very first time.

LINX33 14th/15th May 2001 Eduard VII Conference Centre, Paris

LINX61

15th/16th May 2008 Goodenough College, London

LINX90 15th/16th August 2015 Radisson Blu, Cardiff

In all nine venues have held more than one LINX meeting but the two that will me most familiar to members are the TUC Congress Centre, which has been used on 23 occasions, and the Goodenough College. The Goodenough was first used for another landmark meeting, LINX50 in 2005, and went on to stage 16 LINX conferences plus a specialist IPv6 meeting in 2009 and an Investigatory Powers Bill workshop in 2016.

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LINX News AGM & Board Election Preview

The LINX Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 22nd May 2018 as part of the LINX101 LINX Members’ Conference. The AGM will be followed by an election for two members of the LINX Board. This year will be the first to use a new process for the timing of the election. Our online voting in the election will not open until the AGM and will remain open for two weeks following that. This will ensure that everyone voting will have had a chance to view the candidates’ Q&A session in person or over the webcast at the LINX101 members’ conference where the AGM is held. The footage will also be made available online for the duration of the voting period. Elected Board members Steve Wright and Mike Blanche, are retiring by rotation but both are eligible to stand for a further term. The LINX Board invites suitable candidates to put themselves forward to stand for election to the LINX Board. Nominations to stand for the Board will be accepted for a period of three weeks up to and including Monday 23rd April. This is a relatively short time to allow for the preparation and dispatch of full printed voting packs including details of candidates and their election statements. If you, or another representative of your organisation, wish to stand for election to the LINX Board, please ensure your valid nomination by a LINX member, and your formal confirmation that you are willing to stand, reaches LINX by 23rd April 2018. To be included in the packs sent out to members, candidates’ election statements also need to be with LINX by this date. How to submit your nomination: www.linx.net/ standingfortheboard If you have any questions, please contact the LINX Member Relations team at [email protected].

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LINX Recruitment Dmitri Myrnyy

Senior Network Engineer

Dmitri Myrnyy recently joined the LINX Technology team as a Senior Network Engineer. Dmitri has considerable experience in engineering and architecture largely gained in the New Zealand and Australian telco space. Dmitri told HotLINX, “I have really enjoyed my time at LINX so far. The work is varied and challenging and has enabled me to learn many valuable new skills. I look forward to developing these in the future.”

Jim Wright

Software Engineer The LINX Technology team has announced the appointment of Jim Wright as Software Engineer. Jim began programming early, aged around 12, and by 14 was creating his own games. He went on to gain a degree in Computing at Canterbury Christ Church University which led to roles at two different companies building websites and scalable systems. Jim told HotLINX, “My experience in technology has shown that every company has its own unique issues to contend with. Some of these can be solved with general solutions, but in LINX’s case they can be highly specific and very interesting.”

LINX America Ben Hedges LINX America CEO

Looking Good for a Strong 2018 for LINX NoVA When reflecting on the opening months of the year it feels like it has been strong and steady progress for LINX NoVA in 2018 but with many exciting possibilities for growth just around the corner. Peak traffic at the exchange has now surpassed 25Gbps and we have 47 connected ASNs on the network. The great news is that we have many more in the pipeline and in provisioning in the process of connection. There is a general positivity from everyone we’ve been dealing with whether it be members, prospects or partners so there’s definitely scope for further growth this year.

“Technically Speaking...” My speaking roster for the year is beginning to fill up having been invited, and accepted to speak on a panel at Telecom Exchange in New York in June. Also on the calendar is the i2Coalition Congressional Fly-In, an annual event in Washington D.C. that brings i2Coalition members from all over the world together. This is one of the best the opportunities for Internet infrastructure leaders to stand up for online commerce industry to discuss the most important issues with United States Congress, policy influencers, and others in power. With the recent focus on data protection and industry regulation following the Cambridge Analytica incident, it’s likely to be a very lively couple of days! Ben Hedges, pictured centre, in discussion with Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (second right) at the i2Coalition Congressional Fly-In last year.

Finally, just as HotLINX was published the 13th Global Peering Forum (GPF) was about to get underway. My role as GPF Vice President offers not only the opportunity to talk about the benefits of peering in general but also the chance to promote LINX’s peering services in the States. All in all it’s a very exciting time for LINX NoVA.

LINX NoVA adds Epsilon to list of channel partners

LINX has partnered with Epsilon, a privately owned global connectivity and communications service provider, to give service providers seamless access to LINX NoVA. The partnership enables Epsilon’s service provider partners to connect directly to LINX NoVA from its Infiny by Epsilon ondemand connectivity platform. Jerzy Szlosarek, CEO at Epsilon, said: “We are on a mission to make peering at exchange points across the globe simple and efficient. Our partnership with LINX NoVA will give our service provider partners access to new peering partners in the US and help them to use peering to deliver an optimised end user experience. We are really looking forward to collaborating and growing together.” All Epsilon services are powered by a next generation hyper-scalable global backbone which connects all the leading telecoms hubs globally. Across this fabric encompasses a dense ecosystem of carriers, service operators and Cloud providers offering the leading interconnect point for a diverse set of network and connectivity requirements. LINX America CEO, Ben Hedges, concluded: “The new 10G reseller port connection is great news for both LINX NoVA and Epsilon. We are keen to develop our channel programme and we fully expect that this will enable us to build momentum during 2018. Epsilon are an established partner with LINX in London and this extension of our partnership to LINX NoVA gives networks a wider choice of ways to reach each other over the exchange for their peering”.

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LINX Partner & Member News TeleData becomes first LINX partner to offer new high-capacity bidirectional optics connection LINX member, reseller partner and data centre operator, TeleData, have announced that they have successfully upgraded their 10G port to the new LINX Bi-Di optic, being the first member at the exchange to do so. As a LINX ConneXions Partner, this upgrade immediately enables customers at their own data centre, Delta House in Manchester, to take LINX connections with greater capacity and it has also allowed an additional connection utilising fibres already in place, removing the need for extra cross connects. Matthew Edgley, Commercial Director of TeleData says: “The main thing for us and the customer was being able to provision an additional high capacity LINX port from our data centre, without expensive third-party cross connect fees that are charged to connect into the core LINX PoP at the other end; which could have made the customer connection cost prohibitive. We provided the customer’s cross connect at TeleData free of charge as we’d rather promote and enable LINX connections and member expansion from our data centre, than put cost barriers in the way.” Bi-directional optic transceivers allow both the transmitting and receiving of data on a single fibre resulting in the benefit of reduced interconnect cost for the member, whilst doubling the capacity of each cross connect. TeleData customer and LINX member Boundless were the first to use the new Bi-Di link at their IXManchester location, Williams House, and have successfully migrated their peering over. Chris Bewley, Technical Director from Boundless said: “The use of LINX Bi-Di transceivers has enabled us to take a new 10G port at LINX Manchester, giving us future regional peering capacity as we continue to grow our network. The order process was straight forward and we are seeing good, stable connectivity to the exchange from our equipment in TeleData.” For further information, including LINX’s plans for the wider roll-out of this service across the LINX network, please visit the LINX Bi-Directional Optical Transceivers product page on the LINX website: www.linx.net/bi-directional-optical-transceivers

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Colt Transmission PoP goes Live LINX recently welcomed the Colt Data Centre to their London network as a Transmission PoP. The new partnership offers Colt customers a valuable, new additional service and prospective LINX members an attractive new location to peer in West London. A Transmission PoP is a facility physically based within a carrier neutral data centre that provides customers with direct access to LINX’s infrastructure and improved performance of their peering connectivity. Matthew Cantwell, Director of Product for Colt DCS commented: “We are delighted with the addition of a LINX transmission POP to our London West data centre. Along with a wide choice of alternative carriers, our customers see direct access to Internet exchanges as a crucial element of their network strategy. We look forward to working closely with LINX to help our customers and prospects benefit from the capabilities of our site and connecting directly to the UK’s premier Internet exchange.” Colt Data Centre Services has been designing, building and operating large scale data centres and providing data centre colocation services for more than 20 years at our 24 carrier-neutral data centres across Europe and Asia. www.coltdatacentres.net

New Reseller Partnership with Angola Cables Wholesale carrier Angola Cables has launched a remote peering service to improve the connectivity between the peering community at LINX and the peering members at its own Internet exchange point. Angola Cables is a partner in the development of data centers in Luanda and Fortaleza, Brazil, and in the building of the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) undersea cable, the first direct subsea link between Africa and South America in the southern hemisphere. Angola Cables recently confirmed progress in construction of the 6,500-km undersea cable with an official launch in Sangano, Angola. When finished, the SACS will position Angola Cables as a global interconnection provider by linking to Angola Cable’s European system and eventually to the Middle and Far East. Darwin Costa, Angola Cables Product Manager, said, “Peering at LINX in London and offering a remote peering service is part of the ongoing development of our network to ensure that our customers and partners have access to the latest communication technology and retain us as their ideal partner for international connectivity and high-quality Internet services”. “Since joining the LINX peering community as one of the first exchange points, we have seen a more than threefold increase in traffic. We anticipate gaining new remote peering customers from across Africa and also from South America, once the South Atlantic Cable System is complete.”

IX Reach mark relaunch at PTC’18 in Hawaii LINX member and leading reseller, IX Reach, marked its return and celebrated its official relaunch at PTC (Pacific Telecommunications Council) in Hawaii in January by hosting a poolside social which was attended by customers, partners and peers.

IX Reach was originally founded in 2007 by entrepreneur, and former LINX Board member, Stephen Wilcox. The company was subsequently acquired by IIX in 2015 and later rebranded as Console Connect. In October 2017, having left Console Connect, Wilcox independently bought Console’s global network, assets and customers and reverted to the well-known and trusted IX Reach brand. Speaking on behalf of IX Reach, Elaine Dixon told HotLINX, “In any industry, businesses have to adapt and adopt new trends to remain key and relevant in their market and this is even more true in telecoms; IX Reach’s partnership with LINX is key in order to evolve and that’s why we are proud to have a rich history with respected partners like this IXP. Elaine continued, “The core area of our business has been global connectivity; we pride ourselves on enabling networks to connect seamlessly to IXPs, data centres, partner networks, and the major cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure over our reliable and robust network. Our aim has always been and will continue to be to improve the service for customers so they can provide a better service to their end-users.”

LINX America’s Ben Hedges and Kendra Pignotti (Left and Right) at PTC’18 with IX Reach’s Elaine Dixon

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Industry News

Initial UK 4G and 5G Mobile Spectrum Auction Winners Announced by Ofcom Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, has revealed which mobile operators have been successful in its auction of the new 4G Mobile friendly 2.3GHz and future 5G destined 3.4GHz radio spectrum bands.

Microsoft Reveal $5bn Commitment to IoT

Both bands are being released in order to help boost the performance of 4G and future 5G based Mobile connectivity. The total value of the principal stage is a figure in excess of £1.355bn and the preliminary winners are confirmed as: • • •

EE Limited (BT) 40MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum (£302.6m) Hutchison 3G UK (Three UK) 20MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum (£151.3m) Telefónica UK (O2) All 40MHz of 2.3GHz spectrum (£205.9m); and 40MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum (£317.7m) • Vodafone 50MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum (£378.2m) Further details on this story are available on the ISP Review website: www.ispreview.co.uk

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme The Department for Digital, Culture. Media & Sport have announced the details of a voucher scheme to help boost UK Internet infrastructure. Small or medium sized businesses, may be able eligible to receive a gigabit voucher worth up to £3,000 to upgrade theirr business broadband to a fast and reliable connection over gigabit capable infrastructure. The scheme is supplier-led, so if you are interested in receiving a voucher and there are no registered suppliers in your area you can approach a supplier and encourage them to register for the scheme. The scheme is open to registration for both national and regional suppliers. Learn more about the new scheme here: gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/for-businesses

It has been announced that Microsoft is to spend $5 billion on developing Internet of Things (IoT) products and services over the next four years Julia White, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure, detailed the background to the plans in a blog in early April. In the posting it was stated that the money will be used in IoT research and innovation projects aimed at enhancing IoT security and the development of tools and new IoT and edge services. More and more companies are developing solutions to bring processing power and connectivity closer to the user. Last year, a $1bn connected technologies R&D division was launched by Dell. In an approach not unlike Microsoft’s, Dell will sub-divide its new division into units focussing on product development, consumption models and partner programs. Source: www.datacenterdynamics.com/ content-tracks/design-build/microsoftplans-5bn-iot-push/99996.article

“We’re now seeing the kind of increased adoption and exponential growth [of IoT] that analysts have been forecasting for years. A.T. Kearney predicts IoT will lead to a $1.9 trillion productivity increase and $177 billion in reduced costs by 2020. This effect will be pervasive, from connected homes and cars to manufacturers to smart cities and utilities - and everything in between.“

Julia White,

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CVP Microsoft Azure

Internet Industry Tweets

DDoS attacks hit 1.7Tbps peak in March Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks hit a peak in March with two of the biggest recorded attacks seen so far. On 1 March GitHub, the code repository platform, saw 1.35Tbps of traffic simultaneously hit their site and within a few days, Netscout Arbor reported an even bigger attack against an unnamed US service provider that reached 1.7Tbps in traffic. In the GitHub instance the Internet magazine, Wired, reported that after a few initial outages GitHub automatically requested assistance from its DDoS mitigation service provider, Akamai Prolexic. Prolexic proceeded to route all traffic coming into and out of GitHub enabling it to identify and block the malicious packets and inside eight minutes the attacks stopped. DDoS attacks are clearly a cause for concern. In January, Capacity magazine published a report on the growing threat of DDoS attacks based on data obtained from Corero Networks. Among the key stats were:

35%

increase in attacks per quarter

8

attacks per customer per day

71%

attacks of 10 minutes or less

96% attacks of 5gbps or less

You can read the full report here: www.capacitymedia.com/ Article/3778570/The-growing-threat-of-DDoS-attacks

What they’re Saying When approached by Capacity about the recent DDoS attacks, Archana Kesavan of network intelligence company ThousandEyes, said: “DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent and ever more powerful. With the increasing frequency of these attacks, businesses need to gain a view of how mitigation services are truly working, along with how user experience is holding up under attack. Without tracking all service dependencies and outcomes, you’re operating blind to root causes as well as ultimate impact on your business,”

April saw LINX hit the milestone of 5000 Twitter followers. Below are just a few of the LINX member community related tweets seen on our social media platform recently. Ben Roberts @benliquidkenya Later on at #LINX100 @MattChigwende will deliver a peering personal about AS30844 and peering in Africa. At my first @LINX_Network meeting I met @michukis Michuki Mwangi and together with him, we at @liquidtelecom took African peering to a new level... redGalaxy @redGalaxycom Hello London! Our #100G CDN node is now up & running @LINX_Network. Job Snijders @JobSnijders Congratulations to the @LINX_Network team for successfully deploying secure route servers in London, Scotland, Manchester, NoVa & Cardiff! Great to see LINX’s efforts to shield the Internet from misconfigurations & attacks. Matthew Walster @dotwaffle Replying to @LINX_Network @SNTcourses I was certified LAIT 3 engineer #20 nearly a decade ago. I’ve sent others on these courses, including sales people, to better understand networking. I wholeheartedly endorse both the spirit of these courses and their usefulness! *LAIT (LINX Accredited Internet Technician) training courses have been run by Systems & Network Training since 2001. If you are interested in enrolling please visit: www.snt.co.uk

Do you follow?

You can also get LINX news on LinkedIn and Facebook via the quick links below: www.linx.net/LNC/linkedin www.linx.net/LNC/facebook

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A New Angle on LINX Branding For more than 20 years LINX has had a brand style that has remained essentially same. The name has become a well recognised and trusted symbol within the market place as LINX established itself as a peering platform of excellence with an ethos of working for the good of the Internet. While this still remains true, LINX needs to be a forward looking company that does not rest on its laurels. Therefore LINX recently undertook the decision to hold a thorough review to determine how the exchange should best present itself to current and prospective members and partners. LINX is a very different organisation to the one that was established in the 90s. When it began it was a collaborative process between a handful of networks who wanted a more efficient way of exchanging traffic. Today it is multinational operation with nearly 800 members. These pages look at the key results of the review process, which included in-depth interviews with a number of LINX members and other stakeholders, to ascertain the best approach. Let’s begin with the vision we’ve adopted for the LINX brand, and what it stands for.

LINX Brand Vision LINX is an open community of network operators, interconnecting and passing traffic to maintain and grow an ‘Internet for everyone’, all without interference. 14

Brand Purpose We are driven by members, not profit. As a mutual organisation, LINX was created to serve a community of diverse businesses and will continue to evolve and grow to benefit its members.

Brand Values We live by three main beliefs: Openness, Mutuality and Dedication. Each of these drive how we think and act, both as an organisation and as individuals.

Brand Awareness Since launching the new LINX brand at LINX100 in February our Member Relations and Business Development teams have been showcasing the new look at a number of international events around the world.

On a fundamental level, LINX enables better connections. In order to grow our community, LINX aims to attract international organisations looking to enter the UK or European market who seek a trusted partner. They can either be network providers, CDNs, enterprises or emerging technology companies. Our messaging and communication, aims to ensure that everything we say resonates and builds a connection with our different audience groups. It should always be simple, professional, inspiring, welcoming and proactive. We want to ignite conversations, debate and ideas. The LINX voice needs to inspire our audience with the same passion that we feel for what we do. We’re trying to make the Internet a better and fairer place for our members. LINX is an open organisation with inclusivity at its heart. This is what helps bind us together with a real sense of community. It’s about communicating in a way that is inviting, clear and transparent. We proactively protect the interests of all our members and our collective energy should be a catalyst for everything we do and drive everything we say. This is why our key message is:

Uniting Members. Igniting the Internet.

NANOG72 in Atlanta, Georgia, had an early look at the branding when staff appeared in T-Shirts with the new logo and handed out new business cards. As you can see, Ren Provo, Special Peering Agent at Apple, was particularly keen on our colour choices! The first conference to feature a LINX display stand in the new style was at Apricot 2018 in far off Kathmandu in Nepal. LINX Chief Marketing Officer, Kurtis Lindqvist, and Business Development Executive, Mark Stokes were on hand to answer questions from industry professionals there and they received some very positive feedback.

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Wave2Wave LINX Conference Platinum Sponsor

Layer-0 Automation with Robotics in the Data Centre At Layer-0, Data Centre Infrastructure Management and Automated Infrastructure Management are predominantly discussed. While both help automate the data centre, both rely upon human interaction to manually adjust cabling. According to Data Center Knowledge, more than half of network problems are caused by physical layer issues. Issues in documentation, patching and stranded switch ports are the most common. Accurate manual documentation requires a high effort and accuracy is only as good as the person performing this laborious task. Patching mistakes cause 28% of downtime in data centres due to insufficient work order management and high failure rates during MAC processes. Due to insufficient documentation, many switch ports may even be unused. Put simply, data centre operators don’t have a complete understanding of the available ports.

At present, most optical connections within a data centre are managed manually. Miscommunication or other human error when performing simple maintenance or adjustments to network infrastructure, can increase the potential for additional errors and create spiraling security threats. Finding a way to automate these connections, therefore, not only mitigates the possibility of error, but it also saves money in the process. This past year saw the deployment of robotics to automate management of physical connections in the network infrastructure. With automation, many see a more dynamic data centre network infrastructure, as well as a way to decrease costs and better utilise data centre personnel.

Wave2Wave’s Mission is to Revolutionize Network Connectivity Wave2Wave was founded in 2003 in a Silicon Valley garage with the focus on data centre cabling. Being the fundamental physical form of connectivity, cables are often overlooked until they become a problem. Wave2Wave has quickly established a reputation of superior customer service of problem solving, fast delivery and tailored solutions cost effectively. Down to the basics is what’s followed within the company culture, listening to customers, do what you say, say what you can deliver and deliver every single time. With many world class technology companies as key customers, Wave2Wave’s team follows many “hockey pucks” to help drive where the world of technology is going and providing solutions along the way. Wave2Wave also realised that innovation is overdue in the network connectivity space. In 2014, Wave2Wave made a successful acquisition of FiberZone Networks of Israel and extended static cabling connectivity to robotic automation. ROME® as a 2nd generation robotic optical switch platform was announced in February 2016, and ROME® 500 has been shipped worldwide to mission critical data centers and technology labs for connectivity automation. With patented technologies and more than a decade of experience, Wave2Wave has excelled to the industry’s leader to drive and enable a new generation of Internet. For further information on Wave2Wave products and services please visit: www.wave-2-wave.com

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DCMS publishes consultation on NIS Directive for Digital Service Providers The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has published a targeted consultation to seek views on how the Government intends to implement the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive in relation to Digital Service Providers (DSPs) in the UK. This follows the publication of the Implementing Act for DSPs by the European Commission in January 2018. The Government states that the UK will define DSPs in the same way as set out in the Directive, which means that DSPs will encompass “online marketplaces”, “online search engines”, and “cloud computing services”. As the Government has previously stated, the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO) will be responsible for regulating DSPs in the UK in the context of the NIS Directive. As part of this role, the ICO will produce guidance to help DSPs establish whether they are in scope of the Directive. The consultation states that the ICO will also, after 10 May 2018 when the Directive comes into force, “establish a system in order for UK DSPs to register themselves with the ICO.” The Government states that this system “is necessary in order for the ICO to know who is required to meet the requirements of the Directive and who they need to regulate”, and that it is considering making registration mandatory. Further details can be found in the Public Affairs area on the LINX website. The closing date for responses to the consultation is 29 April 2018. www.linx.net/dcms-publishesconsultation-on-nis-directivefor-digital-service-providers/

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Public Affairs Malcolm Hutty LINX Head of Public Affairs

ECJ to rule on whether Facebook must actively seek out hate speech The Austrian Supreme Court has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on whether Facebook should actively search for hate speech posted by users. The original lawsuit against Facebook was filed by Eva Glawischnig, the former leader of the Austrian Green Party, in 2016, after Facebook refused to take down what she claimed were defamatory postings about her. Last year, an Austrian appeals court ruled in favour of Glawischnig, ordering Facebook to remove the hate speech postings – both the original posts and any verbatim repostings of the same comments – not just in Austria but worldwide. The Austrian Supreme Court has asked the ECJ to look at two issues: 1. Whether Facebook needs to actively look for similar posts, instead of just reposts, and 2. Whether such content needs to be removed globally. The case comes amidst concerted pressure in Europe for social media platforms to do more to tackle hate speech. A new hate speech law in Germany, known as the network enforcement act, requires companies to remove or block criminal content within 24 hours, or seven days for complex cases, of it being reported. The law has already attracted controversy, despite only being actively enforced since 1 January 2018, after Twitter deleted a post by the German justice minister, Heiko Maas, dating back to 2010 before he was appointed to the role, calling a fellow politician “an idiot”. Twitter has also deleted anti-Muslim and anti-migrant posts by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and blocked a satirical magazine’s account after it parodied the AfD’s anti-Muslim comments. The German Government has said that an evaluation will be carried out within six months to examine how well the new law is working. Meanwhile, the European Commission has kept up the pressure on tech companies calling for them “to step up and speed up their efforts to tackle these threats quickly and comprehensively” and reiterating that it would “if necessary, propose legislation to complement the existing regulatory framework.”

Governance In Brief

UK Government to set up new unit to tackle fake news The UK government has announced that it will set up a new unit to counter “fake news” and disinformation. The government said that the “dedicated national security communications unit”, which is already being dubbed the “Ministry of Truth”, would be charged with “combating disinformation by state actors and others”. As yet, there is no further information on where the unit will be based or who will staff it. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee is currently carrying out an inquiry into “fake news” and has requested information from Facebook and Twitter including on Russian activity during the EU referendum campaign.

IPO launches copyright lessons for seven-year olds The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched a new campaign to teach children about online copyright infringement. In a bid to make intellectual property “fun”, the IPO has produced a range of teaching materials for seven- to 11-year-olds, which centres on a series of cartoons following the adventures of Nancy and the Meerkats. The IPO, which believes learning to “respect” copyrights and trademarks is a “key life skill”, is spending £20,000 on the campaign, which is partfunded by the UK music industry.

Internet Society Update Global and Q1 Plans In 2018 ISOC will be engaging across regions and globally to continue to strengthen existing and new IXPs with the community. Here is a summary of some of the work the organisation is undertaking.

Regional Internet Exchange Associations ISOC plans to continue to support local IX Associations and hopes to provide some seed funding to Internet Exchange Federation (IX-F) for its new DB with PeeringDB

Georgia Our European regional team is partnering with RIPE NCC and Georgian IXP (GIX) to revitalize the local interconnection environment. A workshop took place in Q1

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan ISOC in partnership with GÉANT, the pan-European data network for the research and education community, have acquired EC funding to help develop the local interconnection and National research and education network (NREN) environments. Workshops are likely to be held in Q2 to continue to develop local communities with best practices and technical training (BGP).

2018 African Peering & Interconnection Forum Mark your calendars! AfPIF 2018 will take place in Cape Town, South Africa from 20-24 August in tandem with iWeek.

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“It is to Michelle’s credit that she really understood the role that LINX plays generally, and how having LINX in their buildings plays such an important role in establishing the Telehouse Docklands campus as one of the most connected places on the planet. We are grateful for her faithful support, and think it appropriate to recognise her in this way.” 20

John Souter, LINX Chief Executive Officer

In the Spotlight Michelle Reid

Telehouse Europe At the 99th LINX member conference in November, Michelle Reid of Telehouse Europe was presented with the Conspicuous Contribution to LINX Award. Michelle has worked tirelessly with LINX for more than 20 years helping build the exchange’s network services. HotLINX caught up with Michelle to look back on her time working with LINX and to discuss Telehouse Europe’s plans for the future. What are your memories of the time when LINX was established? How did the IXP concept fit in with what Telehouse were doing at that time? The evolution of LINX and Telehouse began in the early part of my career at Telehouse, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to play a role in such an important continuous partnership between the two organisations. The Telehouse North site was originally built to house water cooled mainframe computers and to provide traditional disaster recovery services to the financial sector. It went on to become the first data centre service provider in Europe to offer a purpose built colocation facility and our relationship with LINX developed when LINX first formed in 1994. The LINX founder members, five UK based Internet Service Providers, made the decision to house their equipment at Telehouse North and one of the first routers now is now on display in the Science Museum. Since then, LINX has expanded its member numbers to over 800 in 77 countries and the Telehouse London Docklands campus is now home to over 530 connectivity partners located in the four data centres that reside within the campus.

I have fond memories of LINX and member engineers arriving at Telehouse on bicycles with equipment to install as well as the installation of the “Internet Clock” in Telehouse North which is close to the Meridian line. I’ve attended all of the LINX birthday celebrations including their 20th anniversary, where I’ve enjoyed networking with LINX founder members. What do you feel are the key achievements during the period LINX and Telehouse have worked together? Both organisations have achieved rapid growth over their 25 year history and been pioneers in their own right. LINX is now the leading internet exchange in the world and was the first exchange to deploy a 100-megabit switch - a Cisco Catalyst 5000 and to introduce a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) using Ethernet connections. In turn, Telehouse built its award-winning North Two data centre, with the world’s first multistorey indirect adiabatic cooling system and its London Docklands campus is now the most highly connected data centre campus in Europe. How important has the relationship between Telehouse and LINX been in the development of the Internet and data centres in the UK? It’s hard to imagine that the concept of the world wide web was only developed around 30 years ago by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, though the internet itself originated long before to interconnect super-computers engaged in government research projects. Telehouse and LINX have together provided the infrastructure to support the exponential growth in global website traffic* from around 14 million users when we first started working together, to around 3.5bn users# according to Statista. What’s the next step for Telehouse and what will it mean for LINX members? Digital transformation is changing the IT landscape and the services that Telehouse offers it customers. We are continuing to develop our product portfolio, to provide our customers and LINX members with services such as Cloud Link to support the increasing demand for cloud services. Our London Docklands campus is one of the most highly connected in Europe and offers access to the Telehouse Interconnect, an ecosystem of almost 550 business partners such as LINX, to support this transformation and facilitate faster speed to market. * Source: https://ourworldindata.org/internet # Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/1145/ internet-usage-worldwide/

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Associate Member News HotLINX has a long tradition of highlighting the activities of LINX’s associate members. Like LINX, these are organisations that are usually not-forprofit operations. They are members in all respects but they have no voting rights at constitutional meetings. LINX also does not charge them for their membership. A number of new associates have joined recently and brief summaries of their respective organisations can be found in the box below. Before that we have updates from three LINX associates, Netnod, the RIPE NCC and DNS Belgium. Swedish IXP Netnod have announced exciting developments at their Stockholm and Copenhagen exchanges. They have implemented a new architecture based on a 100Gbit/s optical network which follows a period of major investment and marks a significant milestone in Netnod’s IX operations. Netnod customers can now take advantage of a variety of connection options, high volume discounts, and a range of optical IX services for data centre interconnections. www.netnod.se/news/new-architectureimplemented-at-netnod-ix-stockholm

A market study commissioned by DNS Belgium and executed by InSites Consulting shows that for the average Belgian, confidence in a website is based primarily on the presence of https (45%). Indications that it is an official site (40%) and the domain extension (38%) round off the top three indicators. While this shows many Belgians recognise an encrypted Internet connection there are also risks involved. Found out why here: www.dnsbelgium.be/en/news/https-noguarantee-reliable-website The next RIPE NCC conference is RIPE 76 which will take place in Marseille, France from 14-18 May. This event will see the presentation of the 2018 Rob Blokzijl Award, dedicated to the memory of the Internet pioneer, who foundered and Chaired RIPE for 25 years. The award recipient will be a living person who has made substantial and sustained technical or operational contributions to the development of the Internet in the RIPE NCC service region. Further information on the award and the recently established Rob Blokzijl Foundation can be found here: rob-blokzijl-foundation.org

Latest LINX Associate Members CZ.NIC

CZ.NIC’s key activities include the operation and management of the domain name registry for the .CZ domain in the Czech Republic. The association works on development of the DNSSEC technology and mojeID service and the support of new technologies and projects beneficial to the Internet infrastructure. Website: www.nic.at

EURid

EURid is a not-for-profit organisation that manages the .eu and .ею (Cyrillic script) top-level domains. EURid works with over 750 accredited registrars and provides support in the 24 official EU languages. Website: eurid.eu

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Instituto di Infomatia e Telematia

The Institute of Informatics and Telematics of CNR carries out activities of research, assessment, technology transfer and training in the field of Information and Communication Technologies and of Computational Sciences. Website: www.iit.cnr.it

NIC.AT

nic.at GmbH is the official registry for all domains ending in .at, and for the extensions co.at and or.at. The Vienna University Computer Center (ZID), where Austria’s domain history began, has remained an important technical partner in domain administration to this day. Website: www.nic.at

Universal Acceptance of Internet Domain Names Guest Article by Don Hollander

Making New Internet Domains Work for Everyone Since 2006 the Domain Name System (DNS) has expanded dramatically, not only fueling competition, choice and innovation, but truly enabling a multi-lingual Internet. There are now more than a 1,500 top-level domains (TLDs), many of which are longer than the traditional two- and three-character (e.g. .com, .edu, .nz, and .org) or are in non-ASCII based scripts – such as Arabic, Cyrillic and Thai. The expansion allows people to claim a domain name that best reflects their sense of identity. While this expansion is critical in bringing the next billion people online and growing the global Internet economy, the incorporation of these new domains across the global Internet is not an entirely automatic process. CIOs, web administrators, application developers and others have an important role to play in making sure their applications are compatible with the evolved Internet infrastructure. Many organisations and business have not updated their systems to accommodate the new domains or, in other words, become Universal Acceptance (UA)-ready. As a result, many applications and Internet-connected devices and systems are unable to accept, validate, store, process or display all domain names. This causes problems for organisations and headaches for users because if the applications do not recognize or appropriately process the new domain names or email addresses that use these extensions, it will result in lost customers and a poor user experience. To address these issues and provide support, stakeholders and industry leaders such as Apple, GoDaddy, Google, ICANN, Microsoft and Verisign, created the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG). The UASG exists to help organisations ensure their systems are UA-ready and able to accept all domain names and email addresses in any valid script.

About the Author Don Hollander is Secretary General, Universal Acceptance Steering Group.

The UASG has developed a number of helpful guides and resources which are available at https://uasg.tech/documents. Of particular note is the Quick Guide to Universal Acceptance (UASG005), which is available in multiple languages, as well as the Introduction to Universal Acceptance (UASG 007), a comprehensive technical document on Universal Acceptance and the key issues that developers and system architects need to know. We encourage you to visit our website and view these useful materials, and also to get involved with the UASG (you can join the mailing list at https://uasg.tech/ subscribe) so we can work together to fully incorporate these new domains for the benefit of the next generation of Internet users.

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LINX Events

LINX101 Preview

After a very successful LINX100 meeting at the Park Plaza Victoria in London in February, members will again return to the venue for Annual General Meeting in May. The LINX101 member conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd May. As well as the AGM it is at this meeting that the hustings will be held for the latest round of voting for places on LINX Board. For further information on this please read our article in the LINX News section on page 8. The agenda for LINX101 is still being finalised but will include the usual mixture of technical and regulatory content, guest speakers and panel debates. Among the topics on the programme will be a further update on GDPR from JISC’s Andrew Cormack with Richard Cooper of the BBC to present a talk on 4K streaming and developments on sports broadcast traffic. Also scheduled is an interactive member talk by Walt Wollny on Hurricane Electric’s BGP Tool Kit. LINX would like to thank all sponsors so far confirmed for LINX101. These are Daisy Group (platinum), Zen Internet and ProLabs (silver) and Epsilon (Bronze). Equinix have taken the social sponsorship slot. Details of other sponsors will be announced shortly. If you would like to enquire about the available options for this, or an upcoming event, please visit: www.linx.net/sponsorship-packages

Registration for LINX101 To sign up for LINX101 and view the agenda please visit event page here: www.linx.net/linx101 Registration for LINX101 will close promptly on Wednesday 11th May at 12:00pm GMT. Please note that the last conference was over-subscribed and we were unable to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. This is why it is important to register well in advance to secure your place.

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Upcoming LINX Member Conferences LINX member conferences are traditionally staged on the third Monday and Tuesday of the months February, May, August and November. These gatherings provide members with a valuable opportunity to meet with peers, to share knowledge and ideas and also to keep up to date with technical and regulatory matters. General Meetings are held twice a year where members are able to vote on resolutions that govern the association as well as elect directors to the LINX Board. November’s EGM seeks approval for the following year’s budget. It is standard practice to open registration for member conferences six weeks before the meeting takes place so please consider putting these dates - usually the first Monday of January, April, July and October - in your diary. Two of the next three meetings will be held at our new London venue with only the location for our August event remaining uncomfirmed as HotLINX went to press.

LINX101 & AGM 21-22 May 2018

Park Plaza Victoria, London, UK www.linx.net/LINX101

LINX102

20-21 August 2018

TBC

www.linx.net/LINX102

LINX103 & EGM 19-20 November 2018

Park Plaza Victoria, London, UK www.linx.net/LINX103

Please look out for announcements on our social media platforms, and on the website, in the coming weeks.

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Industry Events UKNOF40

27 April 2018 Manchester Central Convention Complex UKNOF events offer an open environment for those interested in the Internet Industry. Attendees participate in knowledge sharing and freshen up on best practice around network operations and security. LINX are hosting a LINX Manchester networking social for members and UKNOF attendees the day before UKNOF40 on Thursday 26th April. Further detail on how to register is on the LINX website: www.linx.net/linx-manchester-social-2018 Information on the UKNOF40 programme itself can be found here: www.uknof.org.uk

Global Peering Forum 13.0

5-8 March 2018

The Global Peering Forum (GPF) builds on an effort started by multiple commercial organisations over 15 year ago. GPF is an independent, non-profit organisation designed to advance the business interests of individuals involved in peering and interconnection.

LINX has supported GPF since its inception and LINX America CEO, Ben Hedges, is on the GPF Board as Vice President.

March was an extremely busy time for LINX as the exchange began the roll out of its new branding at a number of events at home and abroad

Capacity Middle East

10-13 April 2018 Seattle, Washington, USA

One of the key sessions on this year’s programme is entitled The Future of Interconnection: Networker Visions. Moderated by Martin Hannigan (Twitch), the panel will feature Avi Freedman (Kentik), Christian Kaufmann (Akamai Technologies) and Marijana Novakovic (LinkedIn).

Events Round Up

Halil Kama of the LINX Business Development team and Inga Turner of Member Relations (pictured above) attended Capacity Middle East in Dubai. Capacity conferences are always very popular and always prove useful for developing new member opportunities.

Cloud Expo 2018 12-13 March 2018

For the second year running LINX were an exhibitor at the Cloud Expo event at the ExCeL Centre in London. Staff from the LINX Marketing and Business Development team were in attendence and Chief Technology Officer Richard Petrie gave a presentation which helped to raise awareness of LINX services.

At an adjacent exhibition space was long term data centre partner Telehouse Europe. LINX and Telehouse held a joint social at the end of day one which proved to be a useful way of connecting with existing members and partners, as well as prospects looking to join LINX. However, we have yet to receive an application from the Star Wars Storm Trooper who had visited our stand earlier in the day!

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Meet with LINX Here’s a list of events where you can meet with LINX representatives over the next few months.

Euro-IX 32

15-17 April 2018

Galway, Ireland www.euro-ix.net

UKNOF40 27 April 2018

Manchester, UK www.uknof.org.uk

ITW 2018

6-9 May 2018

Chicago, Illinois, USA www.internationaltelecomsweek.com

RIPE76

14-18 May 2018

Marseille, France ripe76.ripe.net

Innovation through Interconnection 16 May 2018

London, UK www.equinix.co.uk/newsroom/events/ innovation-through-interconnection

ENOG15

4-5 June 2018

Moscow, Russia www.enog.org/enog-15

London Technology Week 11-17 June 2018 London, UK www.londontechweek.com

GCCM Central and Eastern Europe

LINX members will be closer to Rome thanks to NaMeX At NaMeX we have always taken our strategic decisions having in mind the benefit of our members. This is why we decided to enhance the existing Remote IXP connectivity by adding LINX. We offer a full onestop-shopping solution where NaMeX acts as a LINX reseller and our members can order a LINX port in our datacenter since we take care of the transport. Adding a second end point to our existing service has been a challenge in itself as we migrated from a P2P service to a P2MP. This has taken a little tuning at the beginning but now it’s running smoothly. With the support of LINX we will be eager to have the LINX members take advantage of the existing and ready-to-use transport capacity to come to NaMeX and connect with our diversified community that includes the Italian access and content providers and ISPs, research networks and governmental agencies. Maurizio Goretti, CEO of NaMeX said: “We have grown our revenue by 18% YoY 2016/2017 while reducing our peering prices. We believe that during 2018 the importance of the IXP in Rome will keep increasing with a similar trend and look forward to connecting a first member from the LINX community”

18-19 June 2018

Berlin, Germany www.carriercommunity.com You can also find a list of upcoming events on the LINX website: www.linx.net

For Further info on the Nautilus Mediterranean eXchange point (NaMeX) please visit: www.namex.it