IXPN increases traffic by 125 Gbps in 2020

…, Save $ 40 million annually

By Juliet Umeh

The Nigerian Internet Exchange, IXPN, reached traffic of 125 Gigabits per second, Gbps, in 2020 with an increase in cost savings to $ 40 million per year.

This is in accordance with the latest report on the Internet Society’s Critical African Internet Infrastructure, labeled: ‘Anchoring the African Internet Ecosystem: Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria Internet Exchange Points, IXP, Growth.

The report, presented through a Zoom webinar, also revealed that peak traffic growth is a large increase in Peak IXP traffic of 300 Mbps and a cost savings of $ 1,080,000, when in 2012 it commissioned a study to identify and quantify significant IXP benefits in Nigeria.

While validating the growth in traffic towards the current COVID-19 crisis, which has put increasing dependence on the Internet to replace face-to-face interactions during blockades and social distancing, the report noted that Nigeria and Kenya have reached the Stage 2 Internet development, with almost 70 percent of the traffic located from 30 percent in 2012.

The report says: “Since 2012, both countries have experienced profound growth in all aspects of their Internet ecosystems, including their IXPs, Internet access, and content infrastructures. Specifically, savings in Nigeria were even higher. In early 2020, the port rate on IXPN is $ 0.428 per month per Mbps (for a 1 Gbps port), while the cost of international IP transit is $ 27.45 per Mbps per month (also for a capacity of 1 Gbps).

“In order to access traffic or content on the IXP, therefore, it costs approximately US $ 27 less per Mbps per month than it would when accessing abroad, and given the amount of traffic exchanged, this is a saving of more than $ 40 million per year. “

He added that although the cost of IP transit is much lower than in 2012, there is much more traffic through the Nigerian Internet Exchange Point than the savings have multiplied approximately 40 times since 2012.

The Internet Society also praised the Nigerian government for its effort in developing the Internet sectors and adopting data protection policies, thereby reinforcing a trusted environment and welcoming more local content hosting.

Nigerian Internet Exchange Executive Director Mr. Muhammed Rudman, commenting on the report, asked local content developers who are currently hosting their content outside of Nigeria to host it within the country to take advantage of lower latency and, Ultimately, it helps increase local traffic.

He said that smaller Internet service providers, ISPs, should connect to IXPN to establish a good relationship with other members and increase the efficiency of their interconnections, revealing that IXPN covers eight points of presence, POP, in Nigeria.