Connect

Want to connect to the PhillyIX? Here’s how…

Membership Costs and Levels

  • PhillyIX does not charge per port; Rather, we charge an annual membership fee of $2500 per year and operate an “all-you-need” port model. With your membership, you are initially given a single 10GigEthernet port, but if your needs are greater than that, you’re able to expand as necessary (with technical justification and subject to board approval). We currently offer 10G, 40G, and 100G ports. We also allow LAGs if you need more than 10G but less than 40G or 100G, or if your equipment doesn’t support 40GigEthernet.
  • For members who would like to connect at 100G, we ask that you pay an additional one-time fee to cover the cost of the 100G LR transceiver (email admin@phillyix.net for current price).

Steps for Connecting

  1. Acknowledge all technical requirements and important information below.
  2. Email admin@phillyix.net to confirm availability.
  3. PhillyIX will issue an LOA/CFA authorization document for a new cross-connection link to be ordered.
  4. Order a cross-connect with the colo provider at the location you chose when signing up.
  5. Upon link up, PhillyIX will issue a v4 & v6 allocation. (New participants may be placed in a quarantine network segment for initial turn-up.)
  6. Configure the required looking glass BGP sessions and optional route server sessions.
  7. Start passing traffic!

Technical Requirements

  • Participants must utilize an ASN (autonomous system number) that is allocated by an RIR (regional internet registry), such as ARIN. Private or reserve ASN’s are not acceptable – as specified by RFC 1930 or RFC 6996.
  • A single source MAC address is allowed per a participant physical port or logical link aggregation grouping. Additional sourced MAC addresses are forbidden.
  • No broadcast traffic (such as CDP, LLDP, DHCP, STP) is allowed over the IX fabric, except IPv4 ARP and IPv6 neighbor discovery.
  • All participants are required to setup a BGP session with the PhillyIX looking glass server. This service is utilized purely for debugging purposes; no traffic is exchanged over this peering session.
  • Participants are encouraged to utilize the PhillyIX route servers, where appropriate for their organization traffic engineering policies. These peering relationships help facilitate immediate value for new members of the exchange. Peering with the route servers is recommended, but not required.
  • Our switches utilize a BPDUGuard mechanism that will shut down member ports if spanning tree BPDUs are sent towards us. If you are using a switch to connect to the exchange (which is not encouraged), please be sure to enable BPDU filter or a similar mechanism on your side.

Important things to know

  • PhillyIX is a non-profit, all volunteer-run organization. No SLA or service guarantees are implied – all services are considered best effort.
  • Participants may only peer at a single location, regardless of the number of physical or logical ports. The PhillyIX peering fabric is built on significant donated connectivity, physical space, power, and additional infrastructure, with the express intention as a peering fabric and not a transport or carrier replacement.
  • Participants may not sniff traffic between other participants.
  • LOAs issued by PhillyIX are valid for 60 days. To help ensure allocated ports aren’t tied up in an inactive state, our policy is to begin membership billing either upon port link up, or 90 calendar days after the issuance of the initial LOA, whichever comes first.
  • As a general rule, if you do not pay your membership dues within 60 days of invoice, your port will be suspended. After 90 days, your port may be de-configured and your IP addresses may be returned to the available pool. This is to maintain fairness to all members. If your organization is having financial difficulties, please do contact us, we are quite willing to work with you!
  • If you are new to the interconnection scene, and you need help configuring your equipment, reach out to our admin team! We’re all Network Engineers who have decades of collective experience with all types of setups. We’re always happy to help!
  • If you decide to leave the exchange, you must place a cross-connect disconnect order with the colo provider within 30 days of the date you left the exchange. If you don’t place the disconnect order within 30 days, and are generally non-communicative with our admin team, there will be a $300 disconnect fee invoiced to your company. This is to ensure ports are made available for new members or those waiting to connect.