The Internet Society and Alcatel-Lucent have agreed to provide support and equipment for the development of the Bangkok Internet Exchange Point (BKNIX). The project will utilise the Internet Society’s Interconnection and Traffic Exchange (ITE) programme and is intended to deliver a stronger and more robust Internet infrastructure for South East Asia.

The Internet exchange point (IXP) will be powered by Alcatel-Lucent’s 7750 Service router, built on top of its 400 Gbps FP3 silicon, and will provide a carrier and service provider-neutral infrastructure. The Internet Society claims the service provider community will be able to diversify both local and regional peering and data exchange by offering services through BKNIX, which will grant wider Internet access to the public.

Alcatel-Lucent believes that Thailand can now look forward to superfast broadband services becoming more pervasive. “Internet exchanges are a growing market for core routing, and with Internet capacity continuing to expand, their role becomes even more crucial,” said Basil Alwan, President of IP Routing & Transport at Alcatel-Lucent. “Thailand has a tremendous potential market for ultra-broadband Internet connections, but its growth would be improved by stronger network infrastructure.”

Kanchana Kanchanasut, Vice-President of the Thai Network Information Center Foundation, sees content delivery growth as the primary motivator for developing a carrier-neutral IXP. “In recent years we have witnessed dramatic growth of the Thai Internet community with increasing domestic content and local traffic. Instead of today’s existing peering arrangements among ISPs, BKNIX’s neutral IX service will provide economical direct interconnections among them,” he said.

“This relationship will be more sustainable in handling the vast traffic growth in the foreseeable future as content becomes the key driver of the technology.  The contribution by Alcatel-Lucent and the Internet Society will enable the Thai Internet pioneering group to embark upon the next phase of the Internet development in Thailand.  This IXP endeavour will not only benefit Bangkok but our experience and lessons will be shared throughout Thailand and neighbouring countries in the Mekong sub-region.”

As a consequence of widening consumer access to Internet services in Thailand and South East Asia, the Internet Society hopes BKNIX will bring greater social and economic development to the region. It believes commercial and business growth will be a likely benefit of the IXP development, and also advances the training of individuals to build and maintain Internet infrastructure in the region.