Internet Peering Exchange | Green House Data Blog

The reach of the Internet is growing at an astonishing rate; however, there are still thousands of businesses located in rural areas with less than stellar Internet connections. In most cases they are given only two options to get a faster, more reliable connection – wait or relocate.

Neither sounds very appealing so companies with the resources available have been working together to provide a third option – Internet peering exchanges.

What is an Internet Peering Exchange?

An Internet peering exchange is created when companies pool their bandwidth to create a more efficient localized connection. By sharing, or exchanging, resources the companies are able to reduce the latency (delay) that will occur when a signal is sent to an out of the way Internet transit site en route to the final destination.

Think about flight schedules and routes. When flying out of a small airport you are often required to fly away from your final destination to connect with another flight at a hub airport only to back track. An Internet connection being sent from a rural area does the same thing. This is inefficient and takes time. The purpose of an Internet peering exchange – it keeps the traffic within a reasonable geographic location to reduce delays.

Why is Internet Peering Exchange Important?

Having access to reliable, good quality Internet is becoming an essential part of business operations in today’s world. Without a consistently dependable connection companies are unable to efficiently operate VPNs, host VoIP calls or participate in videoconferences. An Internet peering exchange can resolve these problems.

An Internet peering exchange can dramatically improve not only the efficiency of work done within an office but also the overall customer experience – no one likes to sit on hold while the customer service rep waits for their computer to catch up!

Bighorn Fiber Internet Exchange (BFIX)

Visionary Communications brought together the Bighorn Fiber Internet Exchange with the goal of providing a quick, reliable Internet connection to businesses in more rural areas of Wyoming. By working with major technology companies throughout the state and beyond BFIX is able to pool the connectivity resources that can easily be shared within the network.

The following are some of the companies currently participating in the Bighorn Fiber Internet Exchange:

Granite Towers
Mountain West Telephone Network
Green House Data
CoreSite
Silver Star
ACT Access

Posted By: Heidi Kumm