AskDrPeering

Ask Dr. Peering

Ask Dr. Peering

DrPeering –

The Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) is launching a second IX in Mombasa, with the Nairobi one carrying only about 100Mbps while the European IXes are carrying towards 1 Tbps. What is the value in peering at the KIXP?

P.T.

--------------------

P.T. - thanks for the question !

Here is an application of "Modeling the value of an Internet Exchange Point" for the Kenya Internet Exchange : http://drpeering.net/IXPs/KIXP.php . Where did we get the data?

DrPeering was an invited speaker at the 1st African Interconnection and Peering Conference in Nairobi, and I will tell you that these guys ran a top notch peering forum! They attracted about 150 people from over 20 countries - mostly ISPs, with some regulators and IXP Operators in attendance as well. Some of the comments I heard included

“There was more content packed in these two days than most peering events have in three. “

You would never guess that this was the first peering forum -- the speakers were solid, sharing real-world experiences, discussing openly the challenges, contextual nuances, and what has worked. The participant discussions were dynamic and insightful. It was as effective as any peering conference I have attended.

After the event, a bunch of us stopped over at the Kenya Internet Exchange Point ( KIXP ) for a tour and we collected some data surrounding your question. Here is what we learned.

Data Collection

Our guide ( Nick, shown here) estimated that 100Mbps of traffic is peered at the KIXP, and according to Fiona Asonga (CEO,Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya/ Kenya Internet Exchange Point) the going rate for Internet transit is about $400/Mbps in Kenya. From this we can calculate the value that the peering population derives from the IX : the participants’ transit fees are decreased by 100Mbps * $400/Mbps = $40,000 per month.

But to calculated the value of the KIXP to the peering population we need to take into account the cost of peering there. We applied the “Modeling the Value of an IX” and documented the exercise in the page below:

What is the value of an Internet Exchange Point? We apply the Modeling the Value of an IXP logic to the Kenya Internet Exchange Point in this AskDrPeering article.

Peering into Africa

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Chris Morris, Karen Rose, Michuki Mwangi (ISOC)

Nick (KIXP)

Kenya - Not much local traffic today

The KIXP is able to provide value with only a few percentage points of local traffic being peered. People at the conference estimated that only 4-5% of all Kenyan traffic was local, and everything else was pulled from the U.S. and Europe over expensive transit links. So as the amount of local Kenyan traffic increases, the value and dependence of the KIXP increases accordingly. With only 5% of the traffic local today, there appears to be a lot of upside to the KIXP.

Unusual and Interesting in this Kenyan Internet Peering Ecosystem

In Kenya, ISPs and IXPs are required to be licensed and Internet Peering here requires a "mandatory Multi-Lateral Peering Agreement" - if you operate an ISP network here, you must freely peer your routes with everyone. This, by my definition, makes every ISP in Kenya a Tier 1 ISP -- everyone that peers has free access to the entire Kenyan Internet Routing Table solely via their free peering relationships.

The mandatory MLPA is interesting because

it is unusual,

it makes every licensed ISP in Kenya a "Tier 1 ISP",

there are strong, almost religious arguments about it,

we see it in a few other African Internet Ecosystems, and

some are now pushing to remove this requirement.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jonny Martin (PCH), Karen Rose (ISOC), Chris Morris (ISOC), Nick Wambugu (KIXP), Fiona Asonga (KIXP) , Michuki Mwangi (ISOC) for their help and insights with this.

P.S. Interesting side note: we also saw in the field a fake 7" iPad (watch video below). The cover of box certainly made it appear that there was an Apple iPad inside, except for the Android logo on the side of the box. I show the fake next to my real iPad so you can compare. Anyway, just one of those interesting things you see on the road sometimes.