Middle Eastern Exchange Points

Thu Feb 9 16:08:54 UTC 2006

      On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com wrote:
    > In hindsight, it would have been clearer to refer to these
    > places as peering exchanges however back in those days, the important
    > distinction wasn't between peering and transit.

There was a significant effort from 2001 to distinguish between "peering 
exchanges" and "transit exchanges," and that's something I continue to do 
today.  However, a "transit exchange" is (and is Definition by Strong 
Assertion, since it's not a commonly enough used phrase to have a 
definition by general acceptance) a place where multiple buyers and 
multiple sellers convene to buy and sell transit in a market environment.

Things like STIX, where there is one seller and multiple buyers, are 
indistinguishable from common transit, and therefore _are_ common transit, 
which marketing people have slapped a *IX name onto in order to try to 
cloak themselves in unearned credibility.

    > Is it really worthwhile arguing about what names are used 
    > in a non-Western country where English is not the language
    > normally spoken?

...but English is the language they choose to use for naming these things, 
because English the the language in which they gain the unearned 
associations.

At least it's one step better than everybody who isn't one calling 
themselves a NAP.

                                -Bill