1. (TaiWan Internet eXchange) Data Communication Business Group
Status Report of TWIX
(TaiWan Internet eXchange)
Data Communication Business Group
Chunghwa Telecom
Speaker: Eugene L. Chang
September, 2002

2. Agenda A Quick View of IX’s in Taiwan TaiWan Internet eXchange (TWIX)
OAM (Operation and Maintenance) of TWIX
TWIX Network Architecture
TWIX Public Peering
TWIX Private Peering
TWIX Components
TWIX Services (Provisions, Facilities, Maintenance)
General Requirements for Participants
Installation Procedures and access stats
TWIX Members
TWIX Traffics
Current IX Issues in Taiwan
TWIX Futures

3. A Quick View of IX’s in Taiwan
3 Major IX centers in Taiwan:
TWIX (TaiWan Internet eXchange)
TPIX (TaiPei Internet eXchange)
TWNAP (TaiWan Network Access Point)
Number of IX members:
TWIX :38
TPIX : 13
TWNAP : 16
Aggregated Traffics:
TWIX : max/avg = 1400/1100 Mbps
TPIX : max/avg = 90/ Mbps
TWNAP : (unknown)

4. OAM of TWIX
Enabling ISPs in Taiwan to exchange traffics in a secure and reliable way through the deployment of the scalable interconnection system.
Service provided since November 21, 1997.
Provides Multi-Lateral Peering (MLP) and Bi-Lateral Peering (BLP)
Members exchange route updates and extended attributes conforming to BGP4 (RFC-1771).

5. OAM of TWIX (cont’d)
Each route updates are reflected to 2 route servers (route reflectors).
Every member who joined MLP agrees to the interconnect/provisioning policies enlisted by TWIX.

6. TWIX Architecture

7. TWIX Public Peering TWIX HiNet Ethernet Ethernet Switch Switch
Route Reflector
Router (Primary)
Route Reflector
Router (Secondary)
HiNet
Ethernet
Switch
Ethernet
Switch
Link for
Public Peering
ISP 1
Colocated
Border Router
ISP 2
Colocated
Border Router
ISP N
Colocated
Border Router

8. HiNet TWIX Private Peering TWIX Public Peering ISP 1 Colocated
Between
HiNet and ISP 1
(A layer-1/2
Cross-connect)
ISP 1 Colocated
Border Router

9. TWIX Components (1) Ethernet Switch (E/S) (2) Routing Reflector (RR)
Catalyst 6500’s
Provides 10/100/1000 Mbps access.
Peering members are asked to colocate members’ own border routers in TWIX.
(2) Routing Reflector (RR)
Cisco 3640’s (Primary + Secondary)
Supports:
RFC 1966: BGP Route Reflection: An Alternative to Full-Mesh IBGP
RFC 1997: BGP Communities Attribute
Public peering members can only send/receive updates/ advertisements via RRs.
Route dampening.
(3) Network Management System (NMS) :
Real-time management of the facilities.
Logging of inactive/flapped neighbors.
Abnormal behaviors detection (e.g. excessive prefixes)

10. TWIX Components (cont’d)
(4) Web server :
Used as troubleshooting interface for all TWIX members.
System maintenance and/or other important messages are posted.
Periodic traffic-monitoring for each IX port from the members.
TWIX members can check traffic utilization through secure logon.
Looking-glass webpage helps to isolate/workout the troubles.

11. TWIX Services I. Provisioning
1. Dedicated account manager and implement engineer are assigned in charge of consulting and interconnection issues before the installation to shorten the provision lead-time.
2. After TWIX members colocate their equipments (i.e. border routers) in TWIX, the TWIX staff will complete the necessary configuration and cabling tasks regarding to the peering (either public peering or cross-connect) in less than two working days.

12. TWIX Services II. Facility 1. Electricity and Air Condition
Equipped with AC UPS power supply.
Diesel-powered generators are used for backup.
Monitoring of temperature/humidity in TWIX.
2. Security on the room access
TWIX is in 24-hour security surveillance and monitoring.
Two-level of entrance controls.
Other necessary measures from disastrous accidents. (e.g. fire)
3. Networking Hardware
Central equipments are all designed and implemented with redundancy.

13. TWIX Services III. Maintenance 1. Call for Troubleshooting
Provides 7x24 troubleshooting and help-desk.
Helps to identify and coordinate the personnel needed to workout the outages.
2. Technical Consulting
Features with qualified technical staff to co-work with the members.
Consulting services are provided in pre-/post-installation phases.
3. Information
The TWIX website ( provides the traffic statistics, member list, contact personnel, system announcements, etc.

14. TWIX Services III. Maintenance (continued) 4. Useful Tools
TWIX provides looking-glass path verification mechanism to ease the tasks of troubles isolation.
Functions include:
(a) show ip bgp
(b) show ip bgp summary
(c) show ip bgp dampened-paths
(d) show ip bgp flap-statistics
(e) ping
(f) trace

15. General Requirements for Participants
The following requirements apply to candidate who apply for
joining TWIX as a member to peering with other members :
1a. The candidate must have the type-II license, granted by Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT) of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).
1b. For the non-profit/experimental candidate, the special-permission paper, issued by MOTC, is required.
Candidate must have legal AS number and IP prefixes assigned directly from the NIC.
When TWIX has scaled to multiple locations, candidate apply for multi-homed interconnection to TWIX should never detour the intra-AS traffics via TWIX.

16. Installation Procedures
After candidate’s request is admitted, the following technical
requirements must be met to fulfill the installation procedures:
Peering members can apply for DS1, DS3, STM-1 or STM-4 leased line connecting to members’ border router in TWIX.
TWIX provides the access port on Ethernet Switch, from which connecting to members’ border routers.
The access speed can be 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1/3 Gigabit-ethernet (333 Mbps) or full GE speed.
The routing protocol must comply to BGP version-4 (RFC-1771), in together with the basic functions/features.

17. TWIX Access Stats The Number of Circuits Terminated: 66
Most Participants apply DS3 circuits (or above) to TWIX, up to 88%.
The Number of Circuits Terminated: 66
STM-4 : 1
STM-1 : 20
DS3 : 37
DS1 : 8

18. TWIX Members 38 participants till Aug, 2002 HiNet(3462) TWNAP(7655)
GCNet(4662)
PCSNet(17422)
Gamania(7532)
AsiaInfra(17502)
TTN(7541)
TFN(9924)
SYSNet(4783)
ERANet(9310)
ETWEBS(9415)
SeederNet(7538)
GigaMedia(9416)
Dwins(17416)
EPOWER(18109)
SeedNet(4780)
TradeVAN(9671)
PAGICNet(4781)
ISLNet(7649)
InfoServe(9739)
FETnet(9674)
TISNet(7535)
APOL(7482)
AGC(3549)
Intergrand(9917)
Unigate(9831)
CNLINK(7540)
AT&T(2687)
Symphox(9216)
KGEx(9918)
NCIC(9919)
DYXNet(9244)
TATNET(17418)
AboveNet(10133)
SINGTEL(4845)
GSN(4782)
TANet(1659)
KBT (18042)

19. TWIX Traffics Before 26 August, 2002 Max/Avg Volumn : 1.4/1.1 Gbps
This stats account for the aggregated inbound and outbound traffic volumns.

20. Current IX Issues
The maintenance of colocated border router when external leased circuits failed.
The incongruent requirements/policies regarding to extended BGP attributes among members.
The coordination of bandwidth increasing demands from members to members.
The policies of flapped routes.

21. TWIX Futures Provides 10 Gbit access for future growth.
Scaled to multiple IX locations.
Provides out-of-band management facilities.
Promoting the regional IXP (IX Provider)
IPv6 IX trial and commercial services.
The re-examine of IX members’ qualification to explore more aggressive business models.