Linx hits back at critics

NEWS The London Internet Exchange, Linx, has hit back at critics who accused it of picking on small ISPs and failing to invest in new technology. On Monday silicon.com reported criticisms from an anonymous member of Linx, the non-profit exchange which handles 95 per cent of the UK's internet traffic. The source attacked recent changes to the exchange structure, and claimed these changes will adversely affect the performance of the exchange. The exchange is currently composed of routers from two separate vendors, Foundry Networks and Extreme Networks. The proposal, agreed last week, is to separate the two into separate 'clouds', each with their own IP addresses. The source criticised this decision, saying it will reduce the amount of redundancy available to users of both 'clouds' as they could not switch from one to the other. A Linx spokeswoman said: "We are making the network more resilient by splitting it into two clouds. We are categorically saying that it will not be disadvantaging small ISPs. If anything it will give them greater resilience and redundancy." It could, however, be more of a storm in a teacup. We couldn't find an analyst who was prepared to come out in favour of either side in the debate. However, one analyst said: "I suspect that this is more about politics than technology," wisely requesting to remain anonymous. Linx will be investing £2m in new gigabit Ethernet technology to boost capacity, but it won't be using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, a decision criticised by former Linx boss Keith Mitchell, head of XchangePoint and former boss of Linx. Rakesh Kumar, analyst at the Meta Group, said: "DWDM is designed to boost the capacity of a single fibre, but it is expensive to install and not the natural choice for a situation like Linx where the costs of installing new fibre are low."