Full name | Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange |
---|---|
Abbreviation | DE-CIX |
Founded | 1995 |
Location | Germany |
Website | www |
Members | 722 |
Ports | 1121 |
Peak | 5539.09 Gbit/s |
Daily (avg.) | 3278.4 Gbit/s |
Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange (German Commercial Internet Exchange) (DE-CIX) is a carrier and data center-neutral internet exchange point (IXP) situated in Frankfurt (Germany). It is the largest exchange point worldwide in terms of peak traffic with a maximum throughput of more than 5 terabits per second. In addition to DE-CIX in Frankfurt, DE-CIX operates internet exchange points in Hamburg, Munich, New York City (DE-CIX New York), Dallas (DE-CIX Dallas), Dubai (UAE-IX), Palermo (DE-CIX Palermo),Marseille (DE-CIX Marseille), and Istanbul (DE-CIX Istanbul).
DE-CIX was founded in 1995 by three Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Back then, German Internet traffic was still exchanged in the United States. To improve latency and reduce costs for backhaul connectivity, three providers decided to establish an Internet exchange in the back room of a postal office in Gutleutviertel in Frankfurt. Hamburg-based MAZ, EUnet from Dortmund and XLink from Karlsruhe were the first to connect their networks in Frankfurt at DE-CIX.
DE-CIX was managed by Electronic Commerce Forum, now known as eco, the association of the German Internet industry. Other providers joined and made DE-CIX and Frankfurt the hotspot for the German internet. In 1998, DE-CIX moved its switching hardware to the Interxion data center in Frankfurt.
By 2000, DE-CIX had become Germany’s largest internet exchange and was ranked as one of the larger internet exchanges in Europe. DE-CIX added its second switching site at the Interxion campus in 2001 and a third site in close proximity to its original roots at the TelecityGroup data center in 2004.