UAE-IX forms new bridge between Europe and Asia

1 October 2012 marks the start of UAE-IX, an Internet exchange in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). DE-CIX, the world’s largest internet exchange, based in Frankfurt, Germany, has provided know-how and support for the hub’s operation.

UAE-IX is a neutral internet traffic exchange platform that interconnects global networks and, above all, network operators and content providers in the GCC region. The UAE-IX is built on a fully redundant switching platform located in a neutral secure datacenter in Dubai.

The new internet exchange will reduce latency times by up to 80 per cent and costs by up to 70 per cent for GCC providers. Moreover, UAE-IX will improve IP network resilience and robustness and will also help provide reliable connectivity within the GCC.

The Gulf economy is booming and so is the region’s data traffic. HDTV, online gaming, multimedia, and cloud computing are driving data traffic here as well. Until now, internet service providers in the GCC region have had to exchange their traffic via Europe, Asia or North America, leading to high latency rates.

Initiated by the UAE’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) and supported by DE-CIX, UAE-IX delivers a highly available local alternative for regional traffic exchange, localising internet content.  It will dramatically improve routing efficiency and the quality of the internet experience for end-users. “Across continents, data traffic is on the rise,” says Harald A. Summa, Managing Director of DE-CIX Management GmbH in Frankfurt. “The internet’s global infrastructure must grow with it so that data travel shorter distances to get to users. As the operator of the largest internet exchange in the world, we have drawn on our long-standing expertise to help design UAE-IX. UAE-IX will turn the GCC into an independent international hub for the digital economy and will no doubt attract Internet service providers from Europe, Africa and even India, Pakistan and China.”

The TRA stated: “The TRA is pleased to be behind the UAE Internet Exchange, the open peering platform in the Middle-East fostering reliable and robust connectivity within the region and beyond,” adding, “the UAE internet exchange will dramatically improve the end-customer experience for connected operators.”

DE-CIX German internet exchange is the central, international internet exchange in Frankfurt am Main. DE-CIX enables the exchange of IP-traffic, the so called peering between Internet Service Providers through a distributed, failsafe, and highly scalable switch infrastructure. Founded in 1995, DE-CIX today is the most important Internet exchange for Central and Eastern Europe, and the largest internet exchange worldwide for data throughput. Over 480 ISPs from over 50 countries carry out an essential part of their internet traffic through DE-CIX. The independent carrier-neutral owner and operator of the internet exchange is DE-CIX Management GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of eco e.V., German Internet Industry Association based in Cologne.