Contents
1 List of IXPs and IXP-operators
Note: Some of the entries in the list represent IXPs whereas some represent organizations that operate one or more network switches, to which each of the participating ISPs connect. Prior to the existence of switches, IXPs typically utilized FOIRL hubs or FDDI rings, migrating to Ethernet and FDDI switches as those became available in 1993 and 1994. ATM switches were briefly used at a few IXPs in the late 1990s, accounting for approximately 4% of the market at their peak, and there was an abortive attempt by the Stockholm IXP, NetNod, to use SRP/DPT (an ill-fated conjoinment of FDDI and SONET), but Ethernet has prevailed, accounting for more than 95% of all existing Internet exchange switch fabrics. All Ethernet port speeds are to be found at modern IXPs, ranging from 10 Mbit/s ports in use in small developing-country IXes, to ganged 10 Gbit/s ports in major population centers like Seoul, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Palo Alto.
When an IXP incurs any operating costs, those costs are typically shared among all of its participants. At the more expensive exchanges, participants pay a monthly or annual fee, usually determined by the speed of the port or ports which they're using, or much less commonly by the volume of traffic which they're passing across the exchange (fees based on volume of traffic are unpopular because they provide a counterincentive to growth of the exchange). Some exchanges also have a setup fee, to offset the costs of the switch port and any media adaptors (GBICs, SFPs, XFPs, XENPAKs, et cetera) which the new participant requires, and the labor of configuring
