MONTREAL – If you live in Quebec and happen to notice a slight improvement in your internet service, it may be due to the launch of the province’s first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) today.
The Montreal Internet Exchange, a non-profit organization working to create a more robust, higher-performing Internet in Quebec, along with its partners, officially launched the first Quebec Internet Exchange Point, bringing faster Internet to users across the province.
“The launch of the Montreal Internet Exchange, also known as QIX, is a critical step towards creating a faster, more robust Internet, not just in Quebec, but across all of Canada,” said Sylvie LaPerrière, chairperson of the Montreal Internet Exchange and program manager for peering and content distribution at Google, in a release. “With eight million residents, and over two million households with fixed line broadband subscriptions, we're delighted that Montreal is home to the new QIX.”
IXPs have become an increasingly important component of the Internet as it has grown in size and complexity. An IXP is a large data switch that allows Internet users in the same area, usually a large city, to connect directly with each other. Much of the data we send and receive, however, travels back and forth on privately-owned IXPs between larger ISPs.
QIX’s mandate is to essentially help reroute local network traffic by creating shorter, faster paths between member networks, reducing congestion on major Internet backbones and reducing network costs. This can result in a substantial improvement in local Internet performance and bandwidth availability.
QIX is the newest link of this national infrastructure, which includes IXPs in Toronto and Ottawa. The organization says more exchange points in Canada would ensure that local traffic stays local more of the time, allowing for data to take shorter and more direct routes to its destination and resulting in a more robust, higher performing and more economical domestic network. However, creating an IXP requires cooperation between network operators, ISPs and other stakeholders, such as government and private industry.
QIX was established with the involvement of Montreal-area Internet companies, including Fibrenoire, Cogeco Data Services, Metro Optic, Réseau d'informations scientifiques du Québec (RISQ), optic.ca, Groupe Teltech Inc., and Google, as well as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and Cologix.
“Thanks to our sponsors’ participation, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Cisco and our major partner, Cologix, the launch of the Montreal Internet Exchange is a critical step towards creating a faster, more robust Internet, not just in Quebec, but across all of Canada,” said LaPerrière.
“The real milestone is the Internet community taking charge of the QIX development that RISQ had assumed since 1995. The child grew up and it was time for him to leave the family home,” said Michel Vanier, CEO of RISQ. “RISQ will remain involved and continue to assure the operation of the exchange.”
According to QIX, Quebec’s businesses, residents and service providers will benefit from the new exchange point because it will:
- Reduce IP transit costs, thanks to settlement-free, or cost-free, peering arrangements between the members of QIX, which includes Internet service providers and other corporate and public sector partners throughout Quebec
- Improve performance and security for consumers by keeping traffic local without round tripping to exchanges in Toronto or New York
- Provide close proximity to the European cable landing stations in Halifax
- Allow service and content providers and other private and public sector partners to establish new peering relationships with low administrative burdens
QIX will deploy its core node in Cologix’s facility at René Lévesque Boulevard and with a secondary node remaining at 625 Rene Levesque Boulevard West in Montreal.
