GULF-IX

1
GULF-IX

• Saleem Al-Balooshi
• ETISALAT

2
IP Traffic Between GCC

• Most of The IP traffic between GCC is exchanged
  via US or EU.
• Except partial traffic between
• AE,OM and KW which transits via EMIX.

3
ISSUES!!

• Performance/Availability

TTL HOBs Comments
AE-SA gt300ms 15 www.saudi.net.sa
AE-QA gt500ms 12 www.qtel.com.qa
AE-BH gt500ms 12 www.bahrian.gov.bh
AE-KW lt70ms 8 www.101.com.kw
AE-OM gt300ms 14 www.mctmnet.gov.om

4
ISSUES!!

• Cost
• Monthly Charge for an STM-1 link From Gulf region
  to US with the IP port is Approximatly
  250K/Month.
• Traffic Exchanged between GCC is using this
  expensive Link.

5
ISSUES!!

• Security/Privacy
• Traffic between ISPs in the GCC is exchanged via
  3rd parties ISPs (US/EU).

6
Cable Infrastructure between GCC

• FOG (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE)
• Saudi-UAE cable
• Oman UAE Cable
• Saudi-Kuwait Cable
• Saudi-Bahrain Cable
• Saudi-Qatar Cable.

7
Proposal

• Establish Gulf-IX
• Public Peering Point for the ISPs in the GCC
  countries.
• Establish full mesh between the ISPs and the
  exchange points in the GCC.
• High cost !!

8
Advantages of Gulf-IX

• Improve the performance/Availability for the IP
  traffic between the GCC ISPs,
• Reduces Operational cost.
• Improves the security level.
• Encourages the development of local contents.
• A start point for the Joint activities i.e IPV6,
  ENUM, Arabization of DNS, Internet Roaming etc.

9
Requirements

• Two Layer 2 switches (5K).
• 1 Cabinet in an Internet Data Center Environment
• Each ISP to co-locate their router at the
  IDC.(Min equivalent to cisco 2600)
• ISPs to arrange for a back hole capacity form
  Gulf-IX to their Backbone.
• Establish full mesh BGP with all the
  participants.