Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

01. How long does implementation of a new connection take?

NL-ix formally has a maximum delivery time of 10 working days after we have received and accepted the signed orderforms.

Generally we are able to make connections much faster (a few days). But this depends on the ammount of other orders that are already in the connection process and the absence of backbone problems (which have priority over new connections).

When we have received and accepted your orderform we will confirm this and inform you in a order confirmation email about the expected delivery date, the exact location of our switch the port we have reserved for you and the type of patchcable you should use.
Further we will ask you some questions regarding the email addresses you want registered on the NL-ix announce mailing list and published as peering contact.

When we have configured your connection we will inform you in a Order delivery email about all technical details (port ID, MAC address to use, allowed traffic types, VLAN ID's, IP addresses, My NL-ix account, mailing list, etc.) and you can start configuring your side.

After this, when the patchcable is installed and you have also configured your side the connection should come up automatically. If it does not come up or you have questions you can contact the NL-ix NOC. Contact details will be supplied in the order delivery email.

02. Who is responsible for the patchcable between me and NL-ix?

The demarcation point of an NL-ix connection is the port on the NL-ix switch. The customer is responsible for ordering a patchcable with the datacenter from it's router or switch hardware to the NL-ix switch.

After we have received your signed order we will provide you with port reservation details and information about the type of patchcable to use in the order confirmation email. You will need to provide this information to the datacenter so they can install and connect the patchcable.

03. How much routers and switches can I connect?

Like most other Internet Exchanges NL-ix has a 'one layer3 device per VLAN' policy. This means only one router (a layer3 device identified by an ethernet MAC address) is allowed to be visible in each VLAN on your port.

In order to prevent violation of this policy (and with that ethernet loops, misuse and errors) we use port protection (MAC counting). This allows only one source MAC address on each VLAN.

This means you can connect only one router directly to your NL-ix port. If the NL-ix switch detects violation of this rule (sees other MAC addresses) it will automatically shutdown the port for five minutes.

You are allowed to use layer2 devices (switches, tranceivers, etc.) between your router and NL-ix, as long as they are completely transparant and don't send any packets on the VLAN themselves.
If you connect to multiple VLAN's on one NL-ix port, you can use an ethernet switch to connect VLAN's to different routers (MAC addresses).

04. What IP address should I use to peer on?

For all shared peering VLAN's (IPv4, IPv6, NEXT News and NL-ix Live!) you connect to we will provide you with an IP address. You can find the IP addresses of other NL-ix peering VLAN members on the NL-ix website.

For all NL-ix BandMarket dedicated VLAN's, where you buy transit from a carrier, the carrier will provide you with an IP addres for your and his side and a network mask (normally /30 or 255.255.255.252).

For dedicated point-to-point City VLAN's you can pick your own IP addresses.

05. Will NL-ix arrange peering for us?

No, you will have to contact other NL-ix members yourself directly (generally via email) and negotiate peering with them.

Some parties will require you to sign a peering agreement. Please be aware that some parties will not want to peer with you (for example because they think your network is to small or not interesting or 'equal' enough for them). Some parties might not even respond to your peering request because they see it as unsollicited email and therefor will not feel obliged to reply.

After you are connected we will provide you with peering contact email addresses and peering policies of other NL-ix members on the secured My NL-ix part of the website.
Then you will also get access to the NL-ix member announce mailing list where you can announce your willingness to peer with others.

06. What router should I use?

You need a router that supports the BGP4 protocol. We advise to configure the router with at least 512 Mb memory. Different router brands and models support different megabit per second traffic volumes and different number of packets per second values. Please check with your supplier for specific numbers. Support of dot1.q VLAN trunking is very usefull.

The average packet size of your traffic can vary, depending on the type of traffic (gaming often gives very small packet sizes, files transfers often give large packet sizes). In general performance is calculated based on RFC 2544 standard based 512 bytes average packet size.

So for example a router specd at 50.000 packets per second means the router supports max. ((512*8*50.000)/(1024*1.024)=) 195 Mbit/s traffic at 512 bytes average packet size.

In our experience the currently most selected BGP4 router solutions are Juniper, Foundry and Zebra based Linux or FreeBSD PC servers. Extreme and Riverstone are also used, but less frequent. Cisco is also still used, but is loosing marketshare because of price-performance ratio. Further we see a very strong trend towards refurbished (second-hand) routers.

7. Where do I get a AS number or IP address block?

You have two options. Option one is you become RIPE local registry (LIR). Then you can register AS numbers and IP address blocks for your own use and for your customers directly with RIPE. But RIPE membership costs a few thousand Euro's initial and per year and requires substantial knowledge about the RIPE database and procedures. Alternatively you can have your carrier register an AS number and an IP block for you. Often carriers charge you some money for that.

In order to be able to route globally you need at least a /24 (256 addresses) IP block. You can only register the IP addresses you need immediately or within two years, and you will have to document your request. Try to get a "Provider Independent" block of address space from your carrier (instead of a "Provider Aggregatable" block) so you won't have to renumber when you switch to another carrier. Alternatively try to agree with you provider that you are allowed to take the PA block with you when you switch to another carrier.

8. Is transit allowed over NL-ix?

The NL-ix peering VLAN is intended for just that: peering. Inherently providing transit over the peering VLAN is not allowed. We offer dedicated point-to-point VLAN's for that purpose. Those dedicated VLAN's can very easily be delivered on the same NL-ix port. A dedicated VLAN isolates your transit traffic from your peering traffic and makes it easier to manage and measure.