Open exchange points serve as a hub for exchanging research traffic within the Global Network Architecture for Research and Education. This allows researchers access to point-to-point connectivity into global research cyberinfrastructure, without requiring that they establish dedicated links. As a flexible arrangement, the use of open exchange points allows for temporary or short-term capacity to be made available quickly and affordably.
The South African NREN is proud to participate in this global architecture and currently offers the only African open exchange point. This allows South African researchers to access global research by simply connecting to a local exchange point.
Research open exchange points compliment, but don't replace, traditional Internet exchange points: OXPs are optimised for research traffic, whereas IXPs remain important for exchanging commodity Internet traffic.
About ZAOXI
Located in Cape Town, the South African Open Exchange One (ZAOXI) is currently the only African node of the GNA.
The ZAOXI exchange point consists of ... and is connected to global research and education networks in Europe and South America via dedicated, high capacity links.
What is the GNA?
In order to help people better understand the power of a global network architecture, NorduNet released this video:
