It
is now six (6) months since the launch of the IXP (Internet Exchange Point) in
Papine, St. Andrew on Thursday January 1st 2015.
The
IXP is very important for the development of Local Web Services in Jamaica as
reported in my blog
article entitled “Jamaica's
Local Internet Exchange Point - IXP Lower Routings, Web Hosting and Websites
Loading on smartphones as Jamaican Domain Name Registration and MNP, LNP
Approaches”.
Despite
this have not yet started to benefit from it, as surprisingly, the Telecom
Providers have not begun to make Cross-Network Hand-overs of Internet Traffic otherwise
known as Peering possible as reported in the article “Telecoms
connected to local Internet exchange, but not yet sharing data”, published
Sunday June 7, 2015, by Mcpherse
Thompson, The Jamaica Gleaner.
So
what exactly is the IXP?
Primer on the IXP
Internet Exchange Point – Low Latency and Faster Internet
Originally
installed in September 2014, the IXP went live on Thursday January 1st
2015.
The
aim of the IXP is to eliminate the need for Local ISP (Internet Service
Providers) e.g. LIME Jamaica, Digicel, FLOW or eGov, routing traffic requests
to Servers hosting Websites or Cloud based Services abroad. This is done via by
providing Server space for International and Local companies to mirror their
Websites and Cloud based Services here in Jamaica using a Jamaican domain name
e.g. “.com.jm, .org.jm, .edu.jm”.
For
example, if someone in Jamaica is accessing Hotmail.com or outlook.com
on a smartphone or a computer, normally your traffic request is routed via your
ISP, such as FLOW, to the ISP’s International Gateway Switch. That International
Gateway Switch, really a very large MGW (Media Gateway) inside of a Router, handles
both Voice Calls and Data Traffic.
Please
note that Voice and Data are really just Data within the switch, with each
being prioritized and assigned traffic in multiplexed Logical Channels.
That
traffic request along with millions of other requests is multiplexed and routed
via undersea Fiber Optic cables as described in Kelroy’s
blog article entitled “Undersea Cables keep the
Caribbean connected to the World Wide Web” to another International Gateway
Switch in Florida, possibly owned by AT&T.
That
International Gateway Switch in Florida then takes the traffic request coming from
Jamaica and hand it off via a series of Gateway Switches in each LATA (Local
Access Transport Area) within the US of A until it reaches Microsoft's Servers
where the accounts for Hotmail.com
or outlook.com are hosted.
The
request is fulfilled and the information fetched is then sent back in the
reverse direction, finally terminating on the device used by the individual on
their smartphone or a computer accessing Hotmail.com
or outlook.com. Several such request
and fetch cycles may be executed before a Website or Cloud based Service is
fully displayed on your browser or accessed by the program making the request.
With
the IXP, this length of time taken to execute these request and fetch cycles routed
from Jamaicans on the Internet is eliminated, as International and Local
companies can host a local mirror of their Websites and Cloud based Services
here in Jamaica. Thus the need to route Internet traffic abroad to these Servers
hosting these Websites or Cloud based Services is removed.
This
reduction is time reduces the overall latency or total time from a request is
made and the information requested is fetched from the Website or Cloud based
Service. Even access to some Websites and Cloud based Services e.g. Microsoft
One Drive may soon be hosted at either Digicel or FLOW Tier Three Cloud Server
as explained in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Digicel’s
Cloud Backup Services – A deep Analysis” as the number of paying Jamaican
customers increases.
Jamaican Domain name
Web Services –Peering needed for Server Farms to come
In
so doing, Telecom Provider save on paying termination tariffs for traffic
originating in Jamaica to terminate on Servers for Local and International Websites
and Cloud based Services as those services are already duplicated on a Server
located at the IXP. Best of all, it should make getting a Jamaican domain name
i.e. “.com.jm, .org.jm, .edu.jm” a lot easier than the current process.
Aside
from Website Administrators, Jamaican customer should notice that Internet
traffic is faster when accessing certain Websites and Cloud based Services that
have already set up their own Servers to connect to the IXP. Currently all four
(4) Telecom Providers in Jamaicans have connected to the IXP located in Papine,
Kingston:
1.
eGov
2.
Telecom Provider Digicel
3.
Telecom Provider LIME
4.
Triple Play Provider FLOW
However,
this is contingent on Local and International owners of Websites and Cloud
based Services hosting a mirrored copy of their website here in Jamaica on the
IXP. Also, the Telecom Providers listed,
who also happen to be ISP's, must also engage in Cross-Network Hand-overs of Internet
Traffic or Peering in order for Jamaican to reap the full benefit of the IXP.
This
currently what they are not doing. Without Peering, the business of setting up
Server Farms in Jamaica will not take off; Peering will make it worth doing
business in Jamaica.
So
what exactly is Cross-Network Hand-overs of Internet Traffic for an IXP? And
how does it benefit the Telecom Providers and Jamaica?
Telecom Providers ISP
on IXP Not Peering –What is Peering Explained
Cross-Network
Hand-overs of Internet Traffic, also called Peering, is where ISP or Content
Providers connected via an ISP exchange Internet Traffic.
This
is effectively the same thing as a Cross-Network Hand-overs between a GSM (Global System Mobile) Voice Networks,
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Networks or a mixture of both via their
respective MGW (Media Gateway) acting as the intermediary. This makes
Cross-Network Calling possible i.e. a Digicel subscriber being able to call a
LIME subscriber, as the MGW handles the handover of traffic between the two (2)
Telecom Providers.
In
the case of a Internet Traffic, Cross-Network Hand-over or Peering occur when a
request is made by an individual on the Internet via one Telecom Provider's ISP
for a Website or Cloud based Service e.g. Cloud Server, Website Hosting Server,
IM (Instant Messaging) Server that exist exclusively on another ISP.
Why Peering is needed –
Double-Travel to access files on Local Server increases Latency
A
good example of this is someone in Jamaica accessing Digicel
Space, a Cloud Storage service
as described in my blog article entitled
“Digicel
Space Cloud Drive with 1GB Free – Cloud Services as the Twitter Flies in
Jamaica in 2015 the Year of the Sheep” while accessing the Internet via
FLOW.
Because
the request is Digicel
Space in my example is
uniquely hosted on Digicel's Tier III Cloud Server located here in Jamaica, Peering
has to occur via the IXP in order for proper routing of the request to take
place. But as the Telecom Providers are currently not peering, that request has
to be routed abroad to where Digicel
Space Website is hosted on
a “.com” website in the US of A, most likely Digicel Jamaica.
This
example might seem a bit illogical, being as Digicel has a Tier III Cloud Server
which they could host the Login Page for their Digicel
Space Services. But
because Digicel already has a website that has a considerable amount of traffic
and the Tier III Cloud Server is in Jamaica, rather than build a whole new
website, they just simply create another page on their Digicel Jamaica website hosted abroad.
They
then added scripting to route any Internet traffic request for files stored on Digicel
Space Cloud Drive to its
physical location on their Tier III Cloud Server. Thus the request from the
FLOW customer has to go over the International Gateway based in Florida and
then routed by various Gateway Servers from Telecom Providers in the different LATA's
in the US of A until it reaches the Cloud Server that the Digicel Website is
hosted.
That
request is actioned and the traffic is generated coming back to Jamaica in the
reverse direction, finally terminating on the IXP and eventually on the Tier
III Cloud Server.
Oh
my God!
For
this reason, anyone hosting Websites and Cloud based Services in a personal
Windows or Linux Server at their Home e.g. a Radio Station similar to the one
suggested in my Geezam blog article
entitled “The
Music Industry and the Cloud – Streaming Radio Nirvana”, using FLOW, will
be frustrated by a lack of traffic. This is because such back-and-forth makes
Internet requests frustratingly slow as the increased distances for requests to
travel increases time for signals to travel otherwise called Latency.
For
Websites and Cloud based Services to truly spring up in Jamaica, Peering has to
be enabled between the Telecom Providers. This makes life a little better for
Website entrepreneurs, effectively Content Providers connected to the various
ISP's, as it keeps Latency to manageable level, less than say 10ns.
Peering
would make it easier to get Local Internet Traffic requests from individuals on
other Local ISP's and have requests for traffic routed directly from the IXP directly
on their Website and Cloud based Service hosted on their Servers.
Reason why the Telecom
Providers are not Peering - Lack of original Content Providers and a fear of
Hackers and Terrorists
Good
to note that this isn't a competition issue, as the current setup is costing
them money.
Rather,
the most likely reason why peering isn't ongoing is because there are no
Content Providers in Jamaica with their own Servers or anyone legally
registered with the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) providing a unique Jamaican
service using Servers with a Jamaican domain name i.e. “.com.jm, .org.jm,
.edu.jm”.
Thus
they are open to peering but have to be selective about providing the facility,
as Content Providers willing to set up Websites and Cloud based Services have
to be legitimate businesses registered with the Company Registrar of Jamaica in
order for peering to be offered.
After
all, if you are an ISP and an unregistered company sets up a Cloud Service that
is streaming bootleg music and Videos for Free, the ISP might end up facing
legal action from the original owner of the copyright.
This
would be counter to the original purpose of the ISP, which is to allow
Jamaicans with original content to set up Websites and Cloud based Services to sell
their content, thereby protecting their right to make money from their content,
as the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) rightly points out!
Also,
enableing peering would open up the possibility of an unregistered company run
by computer hackers to set up a Website to process sales of a fictitious product
but use that website to steal Credit Card numbers. That too would make the ISP
liable to legal action, this time from International Banks and financial
institutions, especially if the Website set up by the hackers has known links
to terrorists organizations.
For
now, the Telecom Providers are merely giving lip service to queries by the
Jamaica Gleaner about the real reason why no peering has been enabled. Despite
their words, it’s clearly due to a lack of registered businesses approaching
them with their interconnectivity plans to process Local Internet Traffic Requests
for legitimate services being offered by their Websites and Cloud based
Services.
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