1. Africa IXP

2. Outline / Overview

3. Connectivity in Africa 400’000’000

4. Fiber optic links are few and expensive

5. Reliant on satellites High satellite latency, slow speeds and high prices Growth of Internet business inhibited ISP 1ISP 2ISP BISP A 200-900ms 5-15 ms

6. Internet Exchange Points IXP – Internet Exchange Point Interconnection points of the Internet Place where ISPs come to interconnect Keep local traffic local

7. Solution with IXP Latency and costs are greatly reduced Encourages growth of Internet business ISP 1ISP 2ISP BISP A 200-900ms 5-15 ms IXP 5-15 ms

8. Current IXPs in Africa 2 large IXPs 8 small IXPs 4 IXPs in progrss 14 out of 53 countries

9. Africa IXP Primary goal: Setting up IXPs in the three African countres: Malawi Burundi Zambia Secondary goal: Research on and suggest a roadmap for NREN in these countries Burundi Zambia Malawi

10. Working methodology

11. IXP architecture Layer 3 Simple solution Controllability Expensive High capacity router is required

12. IXP architecture Layer 2 Scalability No “bottle-neck” Cheap

13. IXP architecture Layer 2 with router reflector Minimum configurations for ISPs Load balancing and redundancy Equipment

14. IXP services WEB server Primary or/and secondary DNS Network statistics Network tools

15. IXP services

16. Communication Challenges  Inefficiency in communication with local stakeholders  Absence of face-to- face communication Use of Technology

17. 1 Project; 3 Different Countries  Making 3 of everything - 3 design documents - 3 procurement orders - and so on…… Making use of team size - Delegation - Subteams

18. Stakeholders’ Hesitation to Join IXP  Need for a minimum number of participants in IXP  Absence of knowledge on IXPs Organize workshops Increase awareness about IXPs

19. Budget Challenges  Limited budget amount  Delayed approval of budget Low-cost but high- quality design -Reduce redundancy solutions -Use refurbished equipment

20. Procurement & Shipping Challenges  Procurement - Lengthy and hard Start as soon as possible  Shipping - Excessive weight - Custom issues Use local vendors Make use of local participants

21. Achievements Technical design of IXPs Training of project members: BGP training IXP services IXP simulation Convince ISPs Policy document

22. Next Step Implementation phase –Finish procurement –Deploy IXP and testing –Training for local administrators –Policy document –Prepare road map document for NREN –Conclusion phase Documentation Lessons learned

23. Questions