1. Rome, 8 january 2008 Sistema Pubblico di Connettività QXN (Qualified eXchange Network) Mauro Mascagna (CTO – QXN s.c.p.a.) 1

2. Pag 2 Qualified eXchange Network The QXN Consortium Goals Goals The Network Infrastructure The Network Infrastructure Services Services Future developments Future developments

3. Pag 3 Setup date: July 10th, 2006 Founding members: the four major italian TLC Operators On October 2006, QXN Consortium signed a contract with CNIPA in order to implement and run QXN infrastructure and services QXN Consortium - Milestones (60%) (10%) (5%) (25%)

4. Pag 4 QXN Consortium – Organization Management BoardManagement Board, formed by founding members representing the four partners of the Consortium: 1 President (BT Italia) 1 CEO (Fastweb) 4 Fastweb representatives 1 BT Italia representative 1 Wind representative 1 Telecom Italia representative Technical CommitteeTechnical Committee: 1 Chairman (QXN Technical Director) 1 representative each from CNIPA, BT, Fastweb, Wind, Telecom Italia, Namex, MIX and CG-SPC

5. Pag 5 To design, implement, operate and develop a geographically- distributed IP backbone infrastructure (QXN) acting as an exchange network among SPC Q-ISPs** backbones. To provide Q-ISPs with access to QXN services (such as housing, access ports, guaranteed bandwith, centralized DNS, NTP server) To guarantee equal access conditions to QXN infrastructure and services both to Members of Consortium and to other Q-ISPs. **Q-ISP: Qualified Internet Service Provider QXN Consortium – Main goals

6. Pag 6 QXN within SPC General Framework (1) Network : QXN

7. Pag 7 QXN within SPC General Framework (2) SPC managementSPC management Technology and servicesTechnology and services SecuritySecurity SPC Future developmentsSPC Future developments central role QXN is a corner stone within SPC Framework due to its central role in the following issues:

8. Pag 8 QXN Centrality in SPC management QXN Consortium, through the work of its bodies (Management Boards, Technical Committee), acts as an aggregation point among all actors involved in SPC, that are: CNIPA Q-ISPs Q-ISPs CG-SPC CG-SPC NIV NIV SPC ismulti-provider This has a fundamental importance in helping CNIPA to manage a complex environment as SPC is, due to its multi-provider nature.

9. Pag 9 QXN Centrality in technology and services Q-ISPsdifferent technologiesdifferentservices andSLAs different evolution paths Q-ISPs may implement their backbones by using different technologies, with different services and SLAs and according to different evolution paths. QXN smooths all these differences QXN smooths all these differences, by binding all Q-ISPs to comply with specific technical requirements and rules set by QXN Technical Committe. a single SPC virtual network This results in creating a single SPC virtual network (integrating QXN and QISPs backbones) that provides all SPC customers (the PAs) with services with high and homogeneous levels of quality, no matter what Q-ISP is.

10. Pag 10 QXN centrality in security The QXN Points of Presence (PoP) have been implemented by taking specific care to security issues such as: physical security physical security of equipment logical security logical security of data and traffic flowing through QXN network, (by using Firewalls that implement policies for traffic segregation, network intrusion detection, etc.. ) this resulting in a network infrastructure capable of ensuring high security and availability levels of service.

11. Pag 11 QXN centrality in SPC future development new centralized services As a central bulding block of SPC Framework, QXN is well suited to implement and provide new centralized services to PAs. As an example, QXN has already implemented and is currently running the Centralized SPC Domain Name System service, that ensures resolution of domain names of all hosts and services that PAs publish on SPC. Further services are currently under study by CNIPA.

12. Pag 12 QXN Network Architecture - Main features Two PoP Cisco technology, (NAMEX) (MIX) Two PoP based on Cisco technology, located at major italian NAP (Neutral Access Point) premises in Rome (NAMEX) and Milan (MIX) High security levels High security levels (physical and logical) Service Level Agreement (SLA) Service Avalilability = 99,99% One Way Delay <= 20 Ms Packet Loss <= 0,05% One set of technical rules One set of technical rules that every Q-ISP must follow in order to be interconnected to QXN (certification process) Commercial service started Service Trial completed on July 26th, 2007, Commercial service started on July 27th, 2007

13. Pag 13 QXN network architecture SPC Q-ISP A SPC Q-ISP B NODO QXN ROMA ROMA MILANO MILANO BRqxn BRqxn BRqxn BRqxn PA 2 PA n PA y PA x PA 1 RUPA PIR INTERNET INTERNET

14. Pag 14 QXN network architecture Two nodes two redundant high speed transmission links high availability Two nodes - Rome and Milan – interconnected by two redundant high speed transmission links (2x100 Mbps SDH, upgradable up to 1 Gbps), designed for high availability (equipment redundancy and physical path diversity) Each node is equipped with : n.2 Cisco 7609 high-performance routers n.2 Cisco 7609 high-performance routers (BRqxn – Border Routers QXN) interconnected locally and to BRqxn at the remote site; SLA management system Cisco IP SLA SLA management system (based on Cisco IP SLA solution) in order to monitor and measure network quality parameters (One Way Delay, Packet Loss); Firewall e Intrusion Detection System, Firewall e Intrusion Detection System, in order to protect PAs data and traffic flowing through QXN Infrastructure for housing(rack) Infrastructure for housing (rack), in order to accomodate equipment that QISPs use to interconnect their backbone to QXN nodes. These equipment must be co-located to the QXN Border Routers

15. Pag 15 QXN Architecture – network & SLA management Sonda

16. Pag 16 SLA monitoring system Cisco 2811

17. Pag 17 SPC DNS Architecture N. 2 clusters of server (Rome and Milan)

18. Pag 18 QXN service offering OPA InterconnectionOPA Interconnection OPO Interconnection OPO Interconnection SPC Centralized DNS SPC Centralized DNS SPC official timing source SPC official timing source (NTP server) Network Operation Center Network Operation Center (operating a 24x365 service for monitoring and operating QXN infrastructure and services) OPA= Offerta Per le Amministrazioni OPO= Offerta Per gli Operatori DNS= Domain Name System NTP= Network Time Protocol

19. Pag 19 WHO are the QXN Customers ? Current The 4 major Italian Telco Operators (BT, TI, Wind, Fastweb) CG-SPC SPC Management Center (CG-SPC) Coming next NIVNode for PAs Voip interconnection (NIV) Application Cooperation Centers Future Other Q-ISPOther Q-ISP (with national or regional scope) fulfilling requirements set by QXN Board and Techical Committe according to general certification criteria set by CNIPA QCNQCN : Qualified Community Networks