We are pleased to announce the new Service Fees for the use of the interconnection infrastructure of the TOP-IX Consortium in 2024.

The activation of the ports is free for the consortium members. For peering services, non-consortium members can request the activation of 10G ports (activation at 1000 euros and annual fee at 2,000 euros) or 100G ports (activation at 2,000 euros and annual fee at 4,800 euros).

Some novelties for peering bands: the annual fee reduces for consortium members, while non-consortium members can benefit from the 5, 10, 20, 40 and 100 Gbps bands, paying an annual fee that ranges from 6,400 to 33,000 euros.

We also reduce the costs for the Marketplace. Regarding transport, we confirm a 50% discount on canons for Academic and Research Entities.

A novelty is represented by the Ethernet point-to-point connectivity service between nodes of Turin and Milan.

You can find all the novelties and a detailed description of the services at this link.

L'articolo The new 2024 service fees sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The advantages of the new infrastructure were described at the “TOP-IX Talks” last May by Alessandro Galardini, Network Engineer at the Consortium, and Alessandro Bulletti, Senior Consulting Engineer at Nokia.

Significant leap in the speed of available ports (from 100 G and 400 G); scalability of interconnection services, programmability are just some of the main features of the new infrastructure.

Here, in a video made by Nokia staff, Tech Director Andrea Casalegno and Executive Director Leonardo Camiciotti tell how TOPIX uses Nokia’s 7250 IXR routers to provide a flexible range of throughput, scale, port density and speed to meet growing connectivity needs.

L'articolo Nokia’s video on the new TOP-IX infrastructure sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

GTT is active on the TOP-IX Marketplace, through which it can sell its services to other consortium members that are certified to the interconnection platform.

The Marketplace represents a flexible way to sell or buy services, such as IP Transit or security services, such as mitigation from DDoS attacks.

Attestation to the TOP-IX fabric allows quick access to the desired service by simply configurating a VLAN between the seller and the buyer.

Our plans for automation will enhance flexibility even further, and we will provide additional details about them in due course.

L'articolo GTT services now available on the Marketplace sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

Within 6 months, all submitted proposals were favorably evaluated and funded: currently the Consortium has 6 European projects.

The first 2 winning projects have officially begun: Fluidos Kick off meeting was in early September at the Polytechnic University of Turin; EWOC Project Partners met in Aveiro, Portugal, at the IT – Instituto de Telecomunicações in early October.

Here you can find an overview on the other 4 European projects.

DOME – A Distributed Open Marketplace for Europe Cloud and Edge Services

DOME is the first TOP-IX’s project funded under the Digital Europe Program. The main purpose of this new funding program is to foster the digital transformation of the European Union. Specifically, the Digital Europe Program aims to bring digital services to European administrations, citizens and businesses.

Relying on Gaia-X concepts and open standards, DOME will materialize the envisioned online marketplace, providing the means for accessing trusted services, notably cloud and edge services, building blocks deployed under the Common Services Platform.

The project lead is Engineering, and TOP-IX will play a role as DOME service developer and integrator as well as infrastructure provider.

DECICE – Device-Edge-Cloud Intelligent Collaboration framEwork

DECICE is a Research and Innovation Action funded in the context of Horizon Europe Program. DECICE responds to a call for proposals on the World Leading Data and Computing Technologies theme.

In DECICE, we develop an open and portable cloud management framework for automatic and adaptive optimization of applications by mapping jobs to the most suitable resources in a heterogeneous system landscape.

The Consortium’s main activities will be aimed at providing a development environment for project partners, distributing use cases and testing prototypes against identified use cases.

QUID – Quantum Italy Deployment

QUID is the second project funded in the context of the Digital Europe Program. The project (QUID) proposes to start the deployment of the Quantum Communication Infrastructure (QCI) in Italy. QUID deploy systems and networks on the national territory to test quantum communication technologies, and in particular for the quantum distribution of cryptographic keys.

The project will be led by INRIM. The Consortium will provide its expertise in fiber procurement and deployment readiness for QKD, with and without data traffic.

FEMME FORWARD – Fast-tracking women into new tech careers and supporting successful female-led start-ups

FEMME FORWARD is the last project funded in this first round of submissions. Unlike the other projects, Femme Forward is not a research project and is funded under the Erasmus Plus program.

Femme Forward is a forward-looking project targeting the low representation of women in digital jobs and start-ups. Through an innovative and comprehensive training programme, women will be empowered to either start a career in tech or employ their experience and knowledge to set up a tech start-up.

L'articolo European projects: 6 funded in 2022 sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The new Service Fees have been approved for the use of the interconnection infrastructures of the TOP-IX Consortium. The amount of the fee is determined according to the type of options requested (peering, marketplace, transport).

The activation fee is included in the annual fee, it must be paid only in case of upgrade of an existing port.

In addition to the new fees, discounts and promotions were introduced.

• 10% discount starting from the second port of the same type, on the same node;
• 50% discount on the annual fee in case of activation of “Peering” and “Transport” ports, with an overall increase in the annual fee on the node;
• 50% discount on the annual fee increase due to the upgrade, in the event of activation of “Peering” and “Transport” ports, with an overall increase in the annual fee on the node.

To have more details it is possible to consult TOP-IX website.

L'articolo The new service fees for 2022 sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

Empowering its partnership with PCH, Quad9 (an open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy) is now directly available at TOP-IX. Members and partners that are peering at TOP-IX with PCN network can have an advantage while having the service directly available. This means reducing latency and having a better user experience for Internet users.

Quad9 DNS service is operated by the Swiss-based Quad9 Foundation, whose mission is to provide a safer and more robust Internet for everyone. “Quad9 is pleased to announce our presence at the TOP-IX in Turin, where are providing DNS recursive resolver services to all participants of the IX and their customers – sais John Toss, General Manager of Quad9 -. Having connectivity to such a wide range of Italian and regional networks is a significant advantage to both Quad9 and our end users, as being at TOP-IX has brought down latency and improved reliability while keeping sensitive DNS recursive traffic within Italy for connected networks”.

And added:

We are excited to be part of the community of TOP-IX network participants, and look forward to continuing to see our traffic volumes and service improve as a result of our systems now being reachable via the TOP-IX peering fabric.

PCH, founding sponsor of Quad9, is the international organization responsible for providing operational support and security to critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet exchange points and the core of the domain name system. Gael Hernandez (Director Edge Network Strategy and Planning at PCH) stated:

PCH upgraded its DNS node in Turin, the first we ever deployed in Italy, earlier this year. As a result, queries to our hosted resources have increase fivefold in less than a year. We are proud to serve the Piemonte region and its capital Torino since 2009.

For any question about how to get well connected to PCH network and benefit of Quad9 services, you cad directly ask our NOC at networking@top-ix.org.

L'articolo Quad9 DNS operational at TOP-IX sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The use of Consortium interconnection infrastructure requires the payment of a Service fee. The amount of the fee is determined according to the type of options requested (peering, marketplace, transport): pending the new platform, which will allow greater flexibility, the same scheme as last year has been maintained.

In addition to the new fees, discounts and promotions were introduced.
For the peering port and the transport port there is a discount for multiple ports on the same PoP (same capacity and type): 10% discount on additional ports of the same type; 50% on port fees for academic and research institutions.
In addition, there is a 50% discount promotion for new ports and 50% discount on the fee variation in the event of an upgrade (valid for the first calendar year).

As regards the marketplace, there is a 10% discount for multiple ports on the same PoP (same capacity and type), on additional ports of the same type. The separate category was introduced to promote the sale of services on our infrastructure.

You can consult the fees and discounts in detail at this link.

L'articolo New service fees and promotions sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The TOP-IX Consortium has joined the Kinetic Edge Alliance (KEA). Together with the other member companies, TOP-IX will give its contribution to simplify the design, deployment and operation of edge computing.

Edge computing is a distribuited computing paradigm that brings computationand data storage closer to the location where it is needed, to improve response times and save bandwidth. Edge computing will deliver the next wave of network and data center infrastructure, vital to support 5G, autonomous vehicles and many other exciting technologies and applications.

In this process, the Kinetic Edge Alliance plays a central role: it is dedicated to making edge computing easy and connecting stakeholders with end users and customers.

L'articolo TOP-IX is part of the Kinetic Edge Alliance sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The TOP-IX Consortium has started a collaboration with Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top ten global operators, for the exchange of Internet traffic in North West Italy.

Through this agreement, the 120 networks already connected at the Turin Internet exchange point will benefit from Sparkle’s global Tier-1 IP Transit service Seabone and City2City transport solutions available at TOP-IX marketplace. In addition, with Virtual NAP, Sparkle can grant other national and international ISPs, content providers and network operators the opportunity to access TOP-IX peering community without having to implement and manage a proprietary infrastructure nor bearing the costs of colocation.

TOP-IX adds to the eleven European internet exchange points already interconnected by Sparkle – and located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Palermo, Paris, Marseille, Rome and Sofia – improving the coverage of Sparkle’s Virtual NAP service in Europe.

L'articolo Partnership between TOP-IX Consortium and Sparkle sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

TOP-IX network freeze is scheduled from next Aug 10th to Aug 21th.
For any new or upgrade request before the holiday season, please contact us asap at amministrazione@top-ix.org.

We wish happy holidays to all consortium members and partners.

L'articolo Network freeze summer 2020 sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.