Free IX Greece is the Greek version of Free IX, the cost-free platform for peering and interconnection. We aim to make it easier for networks to connect to each other, reduce latency, increase availability, and minimize costs for everyone involved. Our belief is that this benefits the local market and improves Internet connectivity in Greece.
With physical presence in Athens and Thessaloniki, Free IX Greece is the first IXP to offer countrywide peering and interconnection over a single physical connection, using one router interface, and at the cost of a single cross-connect!
Sending traffic to any peering partner across Free IX Greece can be done at line rate from a technical point of view. Free IX encourages the settlement-free high-bandwidth exchange of network traffic between its members, because it leads to a higher quality and more resilient, sustainable Internet.
Why Free IX?
At Free IX we aim to make it easy for everyone, regardless of traffic or company size, to connect in a mutually beneficial way, exchanging traffic locally with low latency and low cost. We believe that the Internet is ultimately useful when built on solid local foundation, and this vision sets us apart:
- Free IX does not and will not charge monthly port fees, providing equal access opportunities to all networks
- Free IX is currently the only exchange providing country-wide connectivity over a single IXP port, allowing customers in Athens and Thessaloniki to connect to each other via a low-latency, high-bandwidth fiber network
Joining requirements
Free IX Participants MUST:
- Have a public Autonomous System
- Have up-to-date PeeringDB and RIR whois information
- Have at least one IPv4 /24 or IPv6 /48 to announce
- Be able to use the route servers available
- Only send traffic to destinations advertised by BGP on the Peering LAN
- Use the IXP IP Addresses exclusively on the Peering LAN
In addition, Free IX participants MUST NOT:
- Advertise or export the Free IX Greece prefixes externally
- Operate services on Free IX Greece Peering LAN IPs (NAT, ARP Proxy, etc.)
Points of Presence
- Balkan Gate Thessaloniki
- TI Sparkle Greece (1 & 2)
- Digital Realty Athens (1/2/3) [Coming Soon]
- Lancom Thessaloniki [Coming Soon]
- Lancom Athens [Coming Soon]
- Synapsecom Thessaloniki [Coming Soon]
If your location is [Coming Soon] and you’d like to express your interest, contact us and we’d love to talk to you! We plan to eventually expand to all of these locations, but prioritizing between them is something you can affect :)
Free IX believes in an open and affordable Internet, and would like to do our part:
1G/10G/25G ports at Free IX Greece will have no recurring cost! For select connections, 100G ports will be made available, on a case by case basis. Free IX Greece does not charge anything for the provided services, so the only costs involved are datacenter cross connect fees to reach our racks, etc. that others may impose. Free IX Greece is a physical Internet Exchange Point, so all connections must be either direct, or through a third party’s port. We do not support tunnels, VPNs, etc. to access the Peering LAN.
If you’re interested in joining Free IX, please send us an e-mail.
Enhanced Connectivity
Free IX Greece allows participants to interconnect through the same physical cable to other members in private, outside the Peering LAN. Each participant can request private VLANs on their port, and, upon request acceptance, the same VLANs will also be available in any other member’s port, free of charge, including across Points of Presence or cities! We’re trying to maximize the value of that cross connect you’re already paying for!
Technical Specifications
Free IX Greece supports the following connection types:
10G
- 10GBASE-LR (SMF Fiber Pair)
- 10GBASE-BX (SMF BiDi Fiber)
- 10GBASE-ER (SMF Fiber Pair)
25G
- 25GBASE-LR (SMF Fiber Pair)
- 25GBASE-BX (SMF BiDi Fiber)
100G
- 100GBASE-CWDM4 (SMF Fiber Pair)
- 100GBASE-LR4 (SMF Fiber Pair)
- 100GBASE-LR (SMF Fiber Pair)
- 100GBASE-BX10 (SMF BiDi Fiber)
Free IX Greece is operating exclusively over Single-Mode Fiber. If you require a special optic not listed above, please contact us, and we’ll do our best to accommodate your request.
TIP: BiDi options allow for two IXP connections with a single cross connect fee, as long as both ends are in the same rack.
Since we’re just starting, and 100G ports are limited, we’ll be providing them after traffic justification, on a case by case basis. If there is significant demand and traffic, we are able to upgrade and add support for multiple 100G ports in a relatively short notice.
Details
Free IX Greece uses AS215405 for the Route Servers and the Peering LAN has the following IP Addresses:
- 2001:7f8:116::/48
- 195.60.80.0/26