French peering exchange deploys new kit to increase speeds

News and Business

The France-IX internet peering service provider has chosen Nokia for the renewal of its interconnection backbone. The Nokia 7750-SR-s IP router technology solution – chosen for “stability, high performance, flexibility and scalability” – will enable France-IX to provide its peering members with optimum connection capacity for both current and future needs, it said. Deployment of the new platform is due to start in Paris and Marseille this year with upgrades to all PoPs to be completed progressively from 2020, according to need.

The new platform will provide a higher port density to accommodate anticipated growth and the evolution of France-IX’ service offerings will be supported by the Nokia IP routers, which are 400GE-ready.

The new backbone will enable France-IX to be more flexible, it said, allowing it to automate the provisioning of new services and cutting the time to their activation to “less than a day” from receiving a request from resellers and France-IX Marketplace sellers.

Simon Muyal, chief technical officer at France-IX, said, “We chose Nokia as our long-term partner because it offers the most advanced technology to homogenise the whole foundation for our IXP platform infrastructure starting with the renewal of our backbone and working towards a broader objective of achieving a long-term homogenous platform for all our PoPS.”

He said: “This major investment – the highest made by France-IX since its creation – will give us outstanding stability and the ability to meet our anticipated growth in terms of increased demand for capacity. We look forward to being able to scale valuable new service offerings, automate network operations, or rapidly deploy new services without constraints.”

Rafael De Fermin, senior vice president for EMEA for Nokia’s IP and optical business, said, “Among the most innovative IXPs, France-IX is keen to scale 100G capacity and deliver 400G interconnection on a stable, programmable platform that leverages automation and reduces time to market for new services.”

For more information, visit www.franceix.net/en/