What is an Internet exchange?

You may heard the term "Internet exchange" or simply "IX" and wondered what it is. Will I am going to write a brief answer. An Internet exchange is a building1simply put is major network that has been assigned an AS number by ARIN. They tend to be mostly Internet service providers. As for peering, that means internetworking their networks to facilitate the transfer of data between the two. (i.e.. I'm chatting with you on my ISP and its network, your on another. They have gap somehow) True peering is free, its reciprocal transfer of data. There are also IP transit companies like hurricane electric and global crossings, who charge for transmitting data, but have such a huge network, they can get away with so doing, because they can deliver data nearly anywhere on earth.
But in essence an Internet exchange aggregated all the connectivity in a region and allows the networks to share data. I will wrote on peering, IP transit and autonomous systems at a later date
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