The BNIX platform, a focus of technology, power and security
The BNIX (Belgian National Internet eXchange) platform, which enables the exchange of IP traffic through peering between its different Participants, is spread across 3 points of presence (PoP). Fully renovated in 2016, it combines complete redundancy, great stability, high capacity and “green” IT.
How does the BNIX platform work?
BNIX works based on the peering principle, namely the direct exchange of Internet traffic between peers. The conditions for these exchanges are governed in peering agreements. To facilitate the maintenance and management of multiple peering sessions, BNIX has deployed a Route Server.
Peering on the platform in five stages:
- Enabling peering: all BNIX switches share the same VLAN.
- Joining peering: each participant receives a BNIX IP address to join the peering relationship.
- Supervising peering: participants sign peering agreements at their own initiative..
- Scheduling peering: as soon as participants agree to establish a peering relationship, peering sessions can be set up via BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
- Running peering: network traffic is exchanged
A highly reliable, neutral platform
The BNIX network is spread across 3 neutral datacentres (points of presence or PoP) The distribution of its infrastructure across different sites is a guarantee of reliability. If there is a problem at a location, communication remains possible via the other sites:
- the CenturyLink datacentre in Evere
- the LCL datacentre in Diegem
- the Interxion datacentre in Zaventem