The Namex Consortium and the TOP-IX Consortium have signed an agreement for the provision of the Time as a Service (TaaS) service, marking an important step forward in the collaboration between two of the leading Italian Internet Exchange Points (IXPs).

The official announcement was made today, The official announcement was made today, Wednesday 19 June, from the stage of the Veneto leg of the Fiber Telecom Wholesale Winery Tour 2024.

Time as a Service

The TaaS service, based on the Precise Time Protocol (PTP) and Network Time Protocol (NTP), on the infrastructures of Namex and TOP-IX, guarantees greater security compared to similar services delivered via satellite systems (e.g., GPS). This is a fundamental requirement for mission-critical applications such as broadcasting, smart grid power networks, telecommunications, and high-frequency financial trading.

The service was developed by TOP-IX in collaboration with its member, the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM).

Sharing of services

“This agreement with Namex allows us to extend the reach of our TaaS service, making an extremely reliable and secure time synchronization solution available outside our network as well,” comments Andrea Casalegno, Executive Director of TOP-IX. “We are excited to collaborate with Namex to advance innovation in the networking sector.”

Maurizio Goretti, General Manager of Namex, echoes this sentiment: “The collaboration with TOP-IX for the provision of the TaaS service represents a concrete achievement, the first, of the federation we established with them last year and moves towards the mutual sharing of services in a federated, secure, high-performance, and neutral environment.”

L'articolo Agreement between Namex and TOP-IX for the provision of Time as a Service sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

The new board of directors of the TOP-IX Consortium confirmed Davide Calonico, Head of Division ‘Quantum Metrology and Nanotech’ at INRIM, as president, and Carla Gaveglio of CSI-Piemonte as vice-president.

The Board of Directors was renewed and increased from 13 to 15 members. We thank outgoing board members Guido Boella, Juan Carlos De Martin and Giancarlo Zambonie and extend our best welcome to the new board members: Emile Chalouhi, Roberto Leoni, Marco Mellia, Angelo Saccà and Alessandra Sponchiado.

L'articolo Davide Calonico: president of the Consortium for third term sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

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.

In 2023, TOP-IX streaming saw the consolidation of the relationship with the University of Turin (we provide the streaming service since 2022). In addition, at the end of the year, started an interesting collaboration with Feltrinelli: we provided the live streaming of the presentations of two books, with authors connected remotely.

The numbers tell us that the on-demand traffic has grown significantly, compared to 2022, reaching 78 TBytes. Despite the growth in the number of events realized (over 200, against about 130 in 2022), the live streaming traffic has instead decreased, settling at 391 TBytes.

News on the streaming platform

Regarding the on-demand services, we have introduced some important innovations on the TOP-IX platform. We have provided a content acquisition mechanism that allows the automatic management of videos with multiple audio tracks and the distribution of content in multibitrate, in order to make the most of the potential of our system, both for live and on-demand content

L'articolo Streaming 2023: on-demand is growing sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

With the Red Carpet this afternoon (Thursday, February 15) at 5:30 pm, the 74th Berlin International Film Festival officially opens, marking the eighteenth year of partnership between the Berlinale and the TOP-IX Consortium, as streaming partner.

From 15 to 25 February, from its temporary offices, on the seventh floor of the Berlinale Palast, TOP-IX will be broadcasting live (and subsequently made available on demand), on the Berlinale website, red carpets, photo calls, press conferences of the protagonists, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the festival.

Enjoy!

L'articolo Berlinale and TOP-IX: 18 years of partnership sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

Last week marked the successful conclusion of our Femme Forward Startup Founders training program –  a transformative 9 week journey filled with valuable exchanges and insights.

At Femme Forward, our mission has been to give our participants the tools and skills necessary to embark on a career in technology, establish a digital startup, or succeed within the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Throughout the course, we explored deeply into crucial topics surrounding women’s empowerment in the fields of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Specifically, we initiated an exploration into the world of startups, drawing valuable lessons from success stories. The modules covered key aspects such as lean start-ups, business model canvas, circular economy, design thinking, marketing, legal fundamentals for startups, artificial intelligence, and much more.

A distinctive feature of our program was providing participants with the opportunity to apply these learnings through self-proposed projects, receiving valuable feedback from industry experts and mentors.

We are proud of  the achievements of our participants and are thrilled to have contributed to their professional and personal growth. A special thanks goes to all the teachers who shared their passion and vision with us during this journey. Their expertise improved the significance of the lessons, contributing to the overall success of the program.

L'articolo Femme Forward Startup Founders successfully closed sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

TOP-IX network freeze is scheduled from next Dec 22nd 2023 to Jan 7th 2024.

For any new or upgrade request before the holiday season, please contact us asap at amministrazione@top-ix.org.

L'articolo Network Freeze for Christmas sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.

As we approach the Impact Deal Showcase on November 23 during EVPA Impact Week in Torino, let’s take a moment to recognise that this event isn’t just a standalone moment — it’s the last chapter of a journey that began on May 31.

From May 31 until now: A Timeline of Impact

Back in May, these innovative enterprises set out on a mission to amplify their impact. Since then, they’ve tackled challenges, embraced new ideas, and committed themselves to make a positive difference. As Impact Deal acceleration program, we did our best to provide them with the tools, mentorship, and resources needed to grow.

For instance, it’s the case of volvero where we created the conditions to access proprietary data from Telco and Bank to boost their roadmap towards sustainable mobility.

Milestones Achieved, Challenges Overcome

These enterprises have hit some impressive milestones, from the program’s kick-off to the final preparations for the Impact Deal Showcase. They’ve refined their strategies, forged partnerships, and successfully raised funds.

To make some examples: one week ago, press releases announced that EIB would provide Xnext with €20 million venture debt loan to support research and development, and Relearn recently publicly disclosed a 1M seed round.

Showcasing Progress to Stakeholders

On November 23, these impact enterprises will share their stories with a diverse audience, including data providers, program partners, impact investors, and enthusiastic participants of Impact Week. They’re not just presenting their projects; they’re revealing the outcome of months of hard work and a relentless pursuit of impact.

Beyond the enterprises mentioned above, we will meet Bin-e, Dedalo AI, OPT/NET, Untap and Valuebin.

Save the Date for the Grand Finale

If you plan to attend EVPA Impact Week or are on the event’s registered list, you are already part of this journey. If this is not the case and you think you should be in the audience, write us at impactdeal@top-ix.org to secure the last available seats.

L'articolo The culmination of a Transformative Journey: Impact Deal Showcase, the Grand Finale 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.

Five Alpine huts in the territories of the Unione Montana Valli di Lanzo, Ceronda e Casternone and the Unione Montana Alpi Graie can finally benefit from fast Internet connections. These are the Paolo Daviso refuge in Groscavallo (2,280 metres), the Bartolomeo Gastaldi refuge in Balme (2,659 metres), the Luigi Cibrario refuge in Usseglio (2,616 metres), the Ernesto Tazzetti refuge in Usseglio (2,642 metres) and the Vulpot refuge, which stands at 1,805 metres on the Malciaussia Lake.

The project originated from a specific request by the Unione Montana di Comuni delle Valli di Lanzo, Ceronda e Casternone and the Unione Montana Alpi Graie to activate a network infrastructure in the Lanzo Valleys area, taking advantage of the reactivation of the optical fibre backbone along the Turin-Ceres railway line, owned by the Mountain Unions themselves (UUMM).

The Città Metropolitana di Torino allocated a contribution of EUR 41,000, in addition to the funds made available by the UUMM. Additionally, as part of the Community Networks initiative, Internet Society (ISOC) provided TOP-IX with a contribution for the reactivation of the optical fibre backbone between Turin and Ceres and the creation of two nodes at stations at Germagnano and Ceres railway stations. These two stations have excellent visibility towards some UUMM transmission towers, useful for the distribution of radio connectivity services in the Valleys.

For the realization of the Alpine Huts connectivity project, the availability of the network operators belonging to the TOP-IX Consortium was requested and, following technical and economic evaluations, the operator Erre Elle Net was selected. It set up quickly the infrastructure necessary to provide connectivity services at the Alpine huts.

The network infrastructure is available to the Consortium operators to provide broadband connectivity in the area covered by the Mountain Union, both for the population and for business activities. This provides an important service for enhancing the territory, making it more attractive than typical mountain areas.

L'articolo Ultra-wideband in the alpine huts of the Lanzo Valleys sembra essere il primo su TOP-IX.