Internet Exchange Point (IXP)

What It Means

An Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is a physical facility, typically a carrier-neutral colocation data center, where multiple networks (ISPs, content providers, CDNs, cloud providers, enterprises) interconnect to exchange traffic directly via peering rather than routing through paid transit. IXPs reduce latency, improve throughput, and lower costs for participating networks. The largest U.S. IXPs include Equinix Ashburn (Virginia, often called the "heart of the internet" because an estimated 70% of global internet traffic passes through it at some point), Coresite LA1 (Los Angeles), Equinix Dallas, Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX), and New York International Internet Exchange (NYIIX). Europe has larger IXPs in absolute traffic: DE-CIX in Frankfurt exchanges over 17 terabits per second peak. A typical U.S. tier-1 IXP hosts 200 to 500 peering networks interconnected via high-speed switching fabric, each participant connects via 10 Gbps, 100 Gbps, or 400 Gbps physical ports and establishes BGP peering sessions with other participants. IXPs are operated by nonprofit associations (DE-CIX, AMS-IX, SIX) or by commercial data center operators (Equinix, Coresite). The United States has a relatively underdeveloped IXP ecosystem compared to Europe, a consequence of the commercial peering model dominant in North America versus the open-peering model dominant in European Internet governance. IXP-rich metros (Ashburn, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle) tend to have lower latency to major content providers than IXP-poor metros, a factor captured in speed test results on the Broadband Grade speed tool.

Frequently Asked Questions