Two-thirds of Internet exchange points are using the Czech software BIRD
64 percent of Internet exchange points (IXP) worldwide used the Czech software BIRD in 2014. This has been published in the report of the EURO-IX organization, an association of the world’s largest Internet exchange points.
Prague, February 25, 2015 – Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of Internet exchange points (IXP) worldwide used the Czech software BIRD in 2014. This has been published in the report of the EURO-IX organization, an association of the world’s largest Internet exchange points. These exchange points constitute the backbone of the Internet and enable data exchange between the individual computer networks. The BIRD software was created as a term project of the students of the Charles University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, and today it is one of the major projects of the research and development department of the CZ.NIC association, the administrator of the Czech national domain.
“It is of course gratifying that BIRD was able to stay at the first place among brands like CISCO or Quagga. But we’re even happier about the 12 per cent rise in exchange points worldwide,“ says Ondřej Filip, CEO of the CZ.NIC Association. “Among others, the BIRD Software is used as a route server by the three biggest peering centers in Europe – DE-CIX in Frankfurt, LINX in London and AMS-IX in Amsterdam. It is naturally also used in the Czech peering exchange point NIX.CZ, which is among the best in Europe. Apart from the old continent, we can also find the BIRD software in the South African NAP Africa, Point of Nigeria or the Japanese JPNAP. And just for the record, BIRD is also used by the Netflix service in OpenConnect Appliances.”
The open source routing daemon BIRD was created at Charles University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics as a seminar project of three IT students. Ondřej Filip is in fact one of the founders of the BIRD project. Five years ago, the project underwent a substantial development, when it became one of the first activities of the research and development center of the CZ.NIC Association – CZ.NIC Labs. In 2010, CZ.NIC received LINX Awards for BIRD. This award is granted once a year by the London exchange point to a person or organization that has significantly contributed to the development of the London center or the whole field of exchange point centers.
About EURO-IX Association
The European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX) was founded in May 2001 with a purpose to support further development, strengthening and improvement of the Internet Exchange Point community. Its aim is to ensure collaboration of the individual exchange points all over Europe by harmonizing the technical standards used by the points in common procedures, for example in the field of statistical analyzes and information activities. For more information about the EURO-IX, see the www.euro-ix.net website.