AMS-IX Infrastructure

AMS-IX is a distributed exchange, currently present at six independent co-location facilities in Amsterdam. Each site is equipped with one or more Ethernet switches to enable connections to the AMS-IX infrastructure. Co-location services are available at all six facilities.

The AMS-IX topology is built around two hub/spoke arrangements, in the picture the components of each are connected by either blue or red lines.

As hubs we make use of Foundry Networks MLX-32 systems (core-glo-201, core-eun-301).
Members connected with GigE, 100baseTX or 10baseT ports are connected to the BigIron 15000 JetCore and RX-8 edge switches in the bottom of the picture. Each of these edge switches connects to both core switches.
Members with a 10GbE port are connected to Glimmerglass Networks System 300 and System 100 photonic cross-connects. These L1 switches connect the member 10GbE ports to the relevant Foundry Networks RX-16 or MLX-16 ethernet switch.

The two core switches run VSRP (Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol) to define the active hub/spoke and to automatically fail over to the other, based on pre-defined triggers (e.g. link failure) The BI15K edge switches follow VSRP automatically, the Glimmerglass switches follow the VSRP failover based on software developed at AMS-IX.

Members can connect to the AMS-IX infrastructure at any of the six AMS-IX co-locations, at 100 Mbit/s, 1 Gbit/s or 10 Gbit/s.

The current AMS-IX setup is visualised in this topology map.