Manitoba Internet Exchange

Flex Networks joins MBIX

Part of our missed-post-at-the-time series. Story should have been posted 2021-05-10

Flex Networks (AS19523) has joined MBIX. Flex is a Canadian ISP which has recently expanded into Manitoba. They operate a fibre optic network in several cities to service their customers. Another local peer means more local peering, which is the goal of MBIX.

Flex has connected at 10 Gbps to the MBIX switch at 355 Portage Avenue. This new expansion Cicso Nexus 3064 switch is connected by four 10 Gbps CWDM waves back to the MBIX switch at 294 Portage.

This expands MBIX presence to four facilities in downtown Winnipeg, giving ISPs another choices of location to plug in their network.

Fastnet and LES.NET have partnered with MBIX to offer cross-connects from members’ equipment to the MBIX switch.

MERLIN joins MBIX

Part of our missed-post-at-the-time series. Story should have been posted 2020-11-15

MBIX is pleased to announce that MERLIN (AS16796) has joined MBIX, connecting to our 167 Lombard switch at 10 Gbps.

MERLIN is an specialized ISP providing service to many educational institutions in Manitoba, including school boards and post-secondary institutions.

This Manitoba network serving thousands of users will be able to exchange data with other MBIX members at high performance.

2020/2021 Annual General Meeting

Thursday, May 20, 2021
3:00 to 5:00 P.M.
AGM to start at 3:30 P.M.

Location: Zoom online
Email info at mbix.ca for Zoom link.

Open to all interested in IXs

All 7 Board of Directors positions open for election.

July 2020 Upgrades

Yesterday, the MBIX Ops Team completed upgrades on its core switches, as part of our ongoing mission to operate high-capacity network equipment.

First, we upgraded to the latest NX-OS software release, and upgraded what Cisco calls the electronic programmable logic device (EPLD)–the silicon that forwards packets.

The bigger job was to replace the 294 Portage switch, an older Nexus 3064-X with a new Nexus 93180YC-FX. Now having two high-performance switches, we were able to upgrade the link between 167 Lombard and 294 Portage from 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps, over dark fibre.

This diagram shows how the MBIX peering network is setup today. Blue circles are the members’ routers, and the green rectangles are the MBIX switches. The light grey rectangles are the datacentres which colocate the MBIX switches.

July 2020 MBIX Network Diagram

These upgrades ensure that any member can send a line-rate data flow (1 or 10 Gbps) to another member without concern that the MBIX fabric could become saturated and drop packets. Packet loss is a key metric of performance, and MBIX members will continue to enjoy congestion-free exchange of data with these network upgrades.

Flex Networks joins MBIX

MERLIN joins MBIX

2020/2021 Annual General Meeting

July 2020 Upgrades

Major Sponsor

Manitoba IX

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