The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday has expressed concern on the continued international routing of domestic internet traffic inspite of setting up of a National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and has recommended new measures to increase NIXI effectiveness.
In letters written to the telecom secretary D.S. Mathur, secretary information technology Jainder Singh, Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said that very purpose of establishment of NIXI has not been served as only 27 internet service providers (ISPs) out of 135 operational ISPs have joined NIXI nodes.
A majority of domestic traffic is still not routed through NIXI defeating the very purpose of setting up NIXI, said Mr Misra.
NIXI was set up on the recommendation of Trai by the department of information technology (DIT), in 2003 to ensure that internet traffic, originating and designed for India, should be routed within India. Presently four nodes of NIXI are operational at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Trai said that the poor utilisation of NIXI has compelled ISPs to carry even domestic traffic on links meant for international traffic. ISPs pay much higher charges for such links. Since there is no mechanism available to measure volumes of domestic and International traffic transacted separately on such links, even domestic traffic is charged at international bandwidth rates, it said.
Trai also said to include that all the ISPs or their upstream providers should either connect to NIXI or with international internet bandwidth providers through direct peering link.
Compulsory announcement and acceptance of all the routes at NIXI nodes have been recommended. This will facilitate effective exchange of domestic internet traffic at NIXI without requiring direct connectivity of ISPs at NIXI. Similarly quality of service parameters of NIXI nodes has been prescribed to ensure effective functioning of the NIXI. Trai said that effective functioning of NIXI will reduce the carriage cost for domestic internet traffic to great extent which will facilitate cheaper content down load and encourage web hosting services.
Courtesy : Asianage.com
In letters written to the telecom secretary D.S. Mathur, secretary information technology Jainder Singh, Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said that very purpose of establishment of NIXI has not been served as only 27 internet service providers (ISPs) out of 135 operational ISPs have joined NIXI nodes.
A majority of domestic traffic is still not routed through NIXI defeating the very purpose of setting up NIXI, said Mr Misra.
NIXI was set up on the recommendation of Trai by the department of information technology (DIT), in 2003 to ensure that internet traffic, originating and designed for India, should be routed within India. Presently four nodes of NIXI are operational at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Trai said that the poor utilisation of NIXI has compelled ISPs to carry even domestic traffic on links meant for international traffic. ISPs pay much higher charges for such links. Since there is no mechanism available to measure volumes of domestic and International traffic transacted separately on such links, even domestic traffic is charged at international bandwidth rates, it said.
Trai also said to include that all the ISPs or their upstream providers should either connect to NIXI or with international internet bandwidth providers through direct peering link.
Compulsory announcement and acceptance of all the routes at NIXI nodes have been recommended. This will facilitate effective exchange of domestic internet traffic at NIXI without requiring direct connectivity of ISPs at NIXI. Similarly quality of service parameters of NIXI nodes has been prescribed to ensure effective functioning of the NIXI. Trai said that effective functioning of NIXI will reduce the carriage cost for domestic internet traffic to great extent which will facilitate cheaper content down load and encourage web hosting services.
Courtesy : Asianage.com