Pakistan’s first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is now up and running in Islamabad. Through this IXP, internet and other traffic will be exchanged within Pakistan using local peering or exchange points as far as it is possible to do so.

What is an IXP?

An Internet Exchange Point is a physical infrastructure through which Internet Service Providers and Content Delivery Networks exchange internet traffic between their networks (autonomous systems).

The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more third-party networks.

Benefits of IXP for Pakistan:

There are various benefits for having an IXP in Pakistan that includes cost saving, lower latency and better user experience. By having an IXP, Internet Service Providers can directly peer with each other to exchange traffic.

This could incentivize local content hosting, that will lower costs and encourage more local content development. Having a IXP can also facilitate developing of local cloud providers by reducing costs and improving performance.

In case of disruption in international bandwidth like undersea cable cuts, local content hosting facilitated by IX will help prevent internet outages. Moreover, IXP ensures that significant amount of traffic will remain local that helps lower security breaches and address many privacy concerns.

Karachi & Lahore will also get IXPs

The Islamabad IXP is running in test mode for the past two weeks and will be formally launched next month. Two more local internet exchanges will be set up in Lahore and Karachi soon.