INX

Peering and Interconnection

ISPA has supported interconnection and peering in South Africa since the year the Association was founded. In December 1996, ISPA launched South Africa’s first Internet exchange point in Johannesburg. ISPA continues to support interconnection initiatives in South Africa, and has received support from the African Union Commission to make exchanges more accessible within the region.

INX-ZA

INX-ZA, a division of ISPA, operates community-run Internet exchange points in Johannesburg (JINX), Cape Town (CINX) and Durban (DINX). Building on the original JINX founded by ISPA, INX-ZA now operates multisite exchanges in each city. These exchanges provide a neutral facility for ISPs and operators of IP networks to connect and exchange traffic in South Africa and encourage the routing of domestic Internet traffic by providing an optimal path for traffic to reach other networks within the same city, country or continent. This reduces the usage of expensive long-distance links and improves network performance. Connecting to any of the INXes is easy, and open to any network that has its own IP address space and an autonomous system number.

Other South African Exchange Points

NAPAfrica is a neutral, layer 2 Internet eXchange (IX) point, located within each of the Teraco data centre facilities in South Africa.

AfPIF

The African Peering and Interconnection Forum addresses the key interconnection, peering, and traffic exchange opportunities and challenges on the continent and provides participants with global and regional insights for maximising opportunities that will help grow Internet infrastructure and services in Africa. AfPIF 9 was hosted in Cape Town as part of iWeek 2018.

Af-IX

The African IXP Association is a group of Internet exchange point operators from across Africa, brought together by a shared need to coordinate and exchange knowledge. It aims to foster an enabling environment for IXP operators, improve connectivity within the continent, and increase the Internet’s value for all. AFIX was established in 2012, joined the Internet eXchange Federation (IX-F) in 2014, and now organizes the annual African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF).

AXIS

One of the flagship projects of the African Union’s African Regional Action Plan on Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE), the African Internet Exchange System project aims to keep Africa’s internet traffic local by providing capacity building & technical assistance to facilitate the establishment of Internet Exchange Points and Regional Internet Exchange Points in Africa.

National White Paper

The National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper, published in September 2016, includes the following as objectives for policy intervention for Internet exchange points (IXPs):

  • To keep continental traffic continental, regional traffic regional and local traffic local;
  • To ensure efficient Internet traffic management across the continent, the SADC region and within South Africa;
  • To increase the speed of inter-country exchange of data;
  • To reduce the costs associated with exchanging data between countries in Africa, the SADC region and within South Africa;
  • To facilitate peering between ISPs in South Africa; and
  • To encourage South African ISPs to peer in the SADC region.