Vienna Internet eXchange
The Vienna Internet eXchange (VIX) is a neutral, highly available Internet Exchange Point for the Central and Eastern European region.
Top Technology
VIX provides a state-of-the-art high-performance infrastructure for optimizing regional Internet traffic. The three VIX locations in Vienna are interconnected via redundant fiber optic links.
Due to this triangle topology, VIX is nearly fail-safe. Route servers and a web portal complete the offer.
The operator of VIX, the University of Vienna, is not in the telecom business and treats all VIX participants equally:
- The costs are transparent. Savings are usually passed on to the participants.
- All data packets are forwarded unchanged and in consistent quality, regardless of their origin.
Diverse Community
The VIX participant base includes large and small network operators: Internet Service Providers, Cloud Providers, Content Providers, Content Delivery Networks and Research & Education Networks.
Most of the 170+ VIX participants (as of 2024) are from Central and Eastern Europe. Many of them operate internationally and are connected to several IXPs.
Remote Connections
You do not have to operate your router directly in Vienna in order to peer at VIX: Participants from more distant regions can also connect their routers via a carrier link or a reseller.
We recommend connecting your own network to the VIX infrastructure at multiple locations. Under certain conditions, there is a 20 % dual-site discount.
Success & Experience
VIX was launched in 1996 by the Vienna University Computer Center (ZID) as the first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Austria. Since then, it has been continuously operated by the ZID. In more than 25 years there has been constant development, but not a single major failure.
Today, the Vienna Internet eXchange is still the largest and most important IXP in Austria.
Cooperations
The Vienna Internet eXchange is a founding member of the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX) and has been actively involved there from the beginning.
In accordance with this close cooperation with other Internet Exchange Points, VIX has always based its technological development on European Best Current Practices.
What is an IXP?
An Internet Exchange Point (IXP) essentially consists of high-performance switches. Participating network operators ("peers") can connect their networks to these devices and subsequently exchange regional data traffic between their networks directly ("peering").
This has several advantages:
- shorter transmission times due to short distances
- improved redundancy for connections to other participating networks
- reduced dependence on commercial transit providers
- less transit on international network structures due to load balancing of high-volume content (when connecting to several IXPs)
If an IXP stops working, the data will simply take other routes from source to destination. It may take longer to get there; but get there it will. This is because IXPs do not provide internet access (i.e., data transit), only connectivity for data exchange among peers. Each participant will need an upstream provider in addition to the IXP connection.
You can find a clear explanation in The IXP Video | The Euro-IX Video.
Links
Here is a small selection of organizations and companies we are associated with.
All VIX participants, carriers and resellers can be found at Participants & Partners.
