This week, the Internet Society has head out to Abuja, Nigeria to undertake a five-days workshop in partnership with the Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) on “Internet Routing Technologies and IXP interconnection.”
Gathering more than 22 network engineers from the telecommunication and Internet sectors, the main objective of the training is to teach the participants the technical skills needed to maximize their benefits from local and regional interconnections at IXPs.
The workshop is part of the Internet Society’s access, connectivity and infrastructure work to support the growth of IXPs across Africa. It’s a key piece of the vision of an Africa that’s not just an “Internet Consumer” but also an “Internet Creator,” attaining an 80% local and 20% international traffic balance by 2020.
IXPN sees great value in hosting the upcoming workshop. Muhammed Rudman, the CEO of IXPN, believes that “the training will advance their goal of providing a national core infrastructure that facilitates Internet operations in Nigeria”. In its continued effort to localize traffic and enhance local Internet routing, the IXPN further expects the workshop to provide the necessary skills to support its future activities aimed at;
- Lower connectivity costs as well as cost savings in millions of dollars in offshore internet bandwidth payments;
- Improved security profile of local Nigerian internet traffic by ensuring that only international traffic leaves Nigeria;
- Reduced latency from 900 milliseconds to 30 milliseconds for local content across the entire country;
- Increased e-commerce activities, leading to reduction of cash transactions;
- Local hosting (of internet content) and rapid increase in local content
Running through 16-20 November 2015, the technical training will incorporate a hands-on lab. The lab will help the participants familiarize themselves with interconnection technologies and techniques deployed on their networks. These technologies and techniques improve overall Internet experience and resilience by increasing the efficiency of network interconnections, and traffic exchanged at the IXP.