German Internet exchange DE-CIX completes core network upgrade

DE-CIX, the Internet exchange operator headquartered in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, says it has completed upgrades to the core infrastructure of its flagship DE-CIX Apollon platform.

Fully online as of July 24, 2013, the new core deployment consists of four Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) 7950 XRS switches and represents a major upgrade that now enables DE-CIX to offer advanced Ethernet-based services across a highly reliable architecture, the company asserts.

The DE-CIX Apollon platform comprises four Supernodes, which combine a 100G ADVA Optical Networking (FSE: ADV) optical transport system and Alcatel-Lucent’s edge and core nodes (see “DE-CIX finishes 100G backbone fiber-optic network”). The 100-Gbps optical transmission capabilities use ADVA’s direct-detect approach rather than coherent technology.

Serving over 500 ISPs and carriers from 55 countries, DE-CIX Apollon is the largest carrier-neutral exchange for direct, settlement-free interconnection of IP networks, the operator claims. The DE-CIX Apollon infrastructure has been engineered to allow customers to benefit from additional Layer 2 capabilities, which enable the multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet connectivity provisioning required for today’s demanding service provider environments.

DE-CIX experiences more than 50% increases in traffic each year. With such continually growing volumes, the new DE-CIX Apollon infrastructure will now offer 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports for customers. Every DE-CIX Apollon node provides up to 8 Tbps of total capacity and will support a mix of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports.

“Over the last 18 years we have developed Frankfurt into a key global communications hub, with a high concentration of carriers, ISPs, CDNs and cloud players,” states Harald A. Summa, CEO for DE-CIX. “DE-CIX has seen tremendous growth and has improved its hardened peering infrastructure by multiplying port density to accommodate the need for additional ports and the expected overall increase in data volumes in the next five to seven years.”

During the next and final phase of the upgrade process, and following a rigorous testing process, DE-CIX will install edge nodes and migrate existing customers to the new platform.

Summa says that DE-CIX Apollon might serve as a blueprint for the operator’s new Internet exchanges in other parts of the world.

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