The role of Internet Exchange increases subsequently

The role of Internet Exchange became prominent during the pandemic as most of India's work-force worked from home. There is surge in demand for traffic and data. Internet service providers were able to meet this increase in demand only because of Internet exchanges' capabilities.

In developing countries like India, the organized broadband sector has a limited reach. On the other hand, alternative service providers spread across the country lack access to infrastructure as well as suffer from inadequate technological and operational know-how. Due to this, out of 250 million Indian households only 20 million have a wireline broadband connection. As per a report by Cisco, India expects to have over 900 million users by 2023. Handling the Internet traffic demanded by such a user base requires a sophisticated infrastructure setup, especially for India. Internet Exchange plays a vital role in the growth of connectivity to success the mission of digital india.

In case you have never heard of Internet Exchange before, it is physical infrastructure where Internet service providers, content providers, content delivery networks, enterprises, BFSI companies etc., interconnect and exchange traffic directly. For the internet to work seamlessly, IX has a collective of routes that helps all the ISPs, network operators and individual carriers need to exchange data efficiently and uninterruptedly to grant access to their content and network. Internet Exchange democratizes access to content and end-users for all participants regardless of size, geographical location, and nature of business. It removes dependence on intermediary transit providers reducing costs and enhancing the end-user experience for the consumption of content and online services.

In India, networks face multiple challenges. There are bottlenecks due to the ecosystem's problems; for example, incumbent service providers cannot provide or upgrade connectivity due to infrastructure issues. It results in poor experience to the end-user and increased costs for service providers and content networks, leading to slow growth of broadband penetration in India.

An Internet Exchange enables the Internet services ecosystem by reducing latency, localizing content and reducing costs in the process. It enables the full potential of the Internet and helps get more users to move to fixed broadband. Internet Exchanges in India offload up to 75% of traffic away from transit providers, thus reducing network costs. ISPs can use the money saved to upgrade their infrastructure, enhance their, improving their service delivery and end-user experience. End-users enjoy access to a faster and stable connection at an overall lower cost, thereby enriching the overall user experience.

For a developing country like India, which has the second-largest population globally but suffers from low wireline Internet penetration, Internet exchanges are essential. As more and more users demand fast, reliable and consistent Internet connections at homes for fulfilling their entertainment, work, and educational needs accessed over multiple devices, delivering high-quality connectivity is necessary for which Internet Exchanges are critical.

The role of Internet Exchange became prominent during the pandemic as most of India's work-force worked from home. Wireline broadband became essential for seamless connectivity, and there was an immense surge in demand for traffic and data. Internet service providers were able to meet this increase in demand only because of Internet exchanges' capabilities. In 2020, IXPs like Extreme IX itself handled weekly peak traffic of 800Gbps and even crossed 1.3Tbps to match up to the data and traffic demands. IXP's infrastructure setup and scalability enabled reduced latency for the end consumers, especially for commonly used applications for ed-tech, OTT content and Cloud services, among others.

While Internet Exchanges' presence benefited the entire ecosystem encouraging broadband penetration in India, the Internet Exchanges also face several challenges. A key challenge faced by IXP’s today is of bringing systems and solutions to bridge the gap between big and small Internet service providers. IXPs also helps improve network design and infrastructure for service providers. As ISPs can connect directly to content providers, it results in lower costs that help smaller ISP compete with larger players.

A World Bank / IFC report says for every 10 percentage-point increase in high-speed Internet connections, there is an increase in the economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. Access to affordable broadband Internet enables development across all levels of the economy and society. Not only will this lead to an improvement in Internet penetration for the country, but it will also provide the push required to make the country moving towards digitally empowered as visions.

Raunak Maheshwari, Executive Director, Extreme Labs