The Willamette Internet Exchange (WIX) project is based in the greater Eugene “Silicon Shire” region of Oregon. Digital Town Squares (DTS) and Internet Exchanges (IXs) serve as a focal point of internet infrastructure. Participating entities interconnect or “peer” with one another to improve network performance, increase resiliency, and build community.
A DTS can increase the resilience of the internet in our region, providing another way for public agencies to connect to each other in case of natural disasters. If there’s a big earthquake and our regional Internet connections to California or Washington get broken, the DTS could enable local communications.
Another advantage of the DTS is that new applications and online services can use it to respond instantaneously, quickly streaming extremely high-quality immersive video including 3D and virtual reality. It connects local tech firms with research tools at the University of Oregon, including their new super computer – which could lead to things like finding drugs to cure cancer.
The Internet Society IXP Toolkit & Wikipedia both provide background information on Internet Exchanges.
Why Connect?
Local, sustainable, organic… bits. By keeping your traffic local you are actively using less energy whilst also reducing latency and improving your connectivity to the assets and services of our participants. Essentially, the more organizations that connect, the better the environment. This is a local and cooperative example of Metcalfe’s Law.
Where to Connect?
Per the charter of organization, core fabric locations are only placed within carrier-neutral data centers. We define such locations as having a diversity of carriers and ISPs available to all tenants of the building, in addition to traditional local or regional incumbent providers.