In Focus: Subsea Network Architecture: IXPs
Maxie Reynolds
Building, Deploying and Maintaining Sustainable Subsea Data Centers. Keynote speaker. Reader.
Subsea data centers can provide low latency, efficient solutions. They can also reduce CO2 emissions and power requirements. They have a low thermal footprint, use zero water, refrigerants or harmful chemicals. They can be used in all the same ways traditional data centers can, but are a new paradigm in submarine network architecture.?
Subsea Cables
Let's start with subsea cables. Transmitting more than 95% of the world’s telecom traffic, submarine networks have never been more critical to global communications. Submarine cables and their connections to terrestrial networks enable real-time access to business and consumer applications, social media, streaming video, websites, and many other bandwidth-intensive services on an international scale.
The internet is facilitated by a vast network of?over 400 submarine cables?that span our oceans. Submarine cables connect continents, countries, mainlands, islands, and, ultimately, us to one another. Demand for?new?submarine cables and capacity?upgrades?are primarily driven by capacity needs–as a result of growing data traffic–and greater connectivity needs. In particular, cloud service providers (CSPs) and over-the-top (OTT) media service companies are driving this growth.?
Additionally, although the submarine cable industry is undergoing a surge in new builds, much of the existing infrastructure that was put into service between 2000 and 2001 is nearing end-of-life and will–potentially–soon face retirement. That means more new cables deployed on existing routes and expansions of networks are likely (and they won't just link and serve major global hubs, but, of course, emerging and underserved markets as well). Up until fairly recently, hyper-scale internet companies have focused their investments on building new cables on transatlantic, transpacific, U.S.-Latin American, and intra-Asian routes. However, other new submarine cables linking Europe to Africa, India to Europe, and India to Singapore, among others, will also become a focus of cable owner-operators (as well as others).
Quick Facts:
Some newer subsea cables are capable of carrying +200 Tbps?(FYI: this is a link to a PDF that will download to your computer upon clicking)
Data Centers:
Before moving to IXPs, we'll look at both traditional and subsea data centers to better socialize the concept of this new asset type, leading to how IXPs could fit in.?
Data Centers: Modern data centers are very different than they were even a short time ago. Infrastructure has shifted from traditional on-premises physical servers to virtual networks that support applications and workloads across pools of physical infrastructure and into a?multicloud environment. In this era, data exists and is connected across multiple data centers, the edge, and public and private clouds. The data center must be able to communicate across these multiple sites, both on-premises and in the cloud. When applications are hosted in the cloud, they are using data center resources from the cloud provider.?
Data centers were traditionally located close to end-users in densely populated cities. However, this is decreasingly the case, as data centers are being built further away from cities to take advantage of more favorable regulatory environments, lower energy and real estate costs, or other cost-saving reasons, such as tax breaks. Large data centers have even been built in remote Nordic locations in Sweden and Finland to take advantage of the cold air to cool data centers and further save on energy costs. Regardless of where these data centers are located, the network ultimately dictates the user experience.
But as?Kevin?Slavin,?in his?TED Conferences talk?titled 'How Algorithms Shape Our World', draws attention to, data centers can be placed far more optimally than has been the case and as is the current trend (which is to move further away from cities). One of his most interesting insights comes from a largely technical paper on?relativistic statistical arbitrage. The image below is from that paper: the blue dots are the optimal place for servers, many of which are in the ocean/by the coast/in other waterways:?
Large data centers situated far from city centers challenge the traditional landing of submarine cables in or very close to cities. In his talk, Slavin goes on to talk about "algorithmic efficiency" and we start to get the picture that algorithms are the "third co-evolutionary force", helping us shape the world to become more efficient, more optimized and more effective. As he also says, "From the work of the over 20,000 physicists on Wall Street who created algo trading, to the mathematicians at Netflix, Google, and?Amazon.com?who use algorithms to analyze and predict behavior, our world is being impacted by math that has undergone a transformation from being something that is extracted and derived from the world to something that is actually shaping it." It's not apparent to me, nor for me to really comment, on whether Slavin thinks this is a net benefit to society or not.
In any case, what this map says?is that, if you're trying to make money on the markets where the red dots are,?that's where people are, where the cities are, you're going to have to put the servers where the blue dots are?to do that most effectively.?And the thing that you might have noticed about those blue dots?is that a lot of them are in the middle of the ocean.?And, the reality is that, with a growing population of internet users, demand for these international networks is increasing, including the optimized data center component. In addition to our growing population, more and more devices are becoming connected to the internet, which means overall internet usage per person is on the rise as well and we need more of everything, everywhere. With these things in mind, our world requires continued innovation in network technologies that enable us to stay connected: effectively, efficiently, sustainably.
Underwater fully sustainable data center pods, connected directly into subsea cables, change how we can bring connectivity to nations, companies and people around the world.?
Enter the IXP
Something that’s become an obvious vector, but was off of our radar when Subsea Cloud was first formed, is the internet exchange point. An Internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical location through which Internet infrastructure companies such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content delivery networks connect with each other.
IXPs are crucial components of the global internet infrastructure, playing a vital role in ensuring the efficient and reliable operation of the internet. To follow is a short overview showing the criticality of this asset type.
IXPs allow internet service providers and content providers to connect directly to each other. This direct peering reduces the number of intermediate hops data packets must take to reach their destination, leading to lower latency. Reduced latency is critical for applications that require real-time data transmission, such as video conferencing, online gaming, and financial transactions, etc. They improve the network performance overall. By exchanging traffic locally at an IXP, ISPs can offload some of their traffic from expensive long-haul links. This in and of itself encourages local content. Content providers, such as streaming services and websites, can connect directly to ISPs in the same region through an IXP. This means more content is closer to end-users, again reducing the load on international links and improving content delivery. This has another positive consequence, too: It facilitates forms of data sovereignty. By enabling local data exchange, IXPs allow countries to keep certain internet traffic within their borders, which may align with data protection and privacy regulations.
They also introduce another level of redundancy and resilience, given if one connection or route fails, traffic can be rerouted through alternative paths via the IXP.
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The Power Throuple
Data centers and submarine cables work together to help businesses?connect globally?and?maximize performance. Subsea IXPs have an even greater effect on the overall infrastructure.
Users–man or machine–must have access to content stored in remote data centers, which necessitates high-speed network connectivity, which drives new submarine cable builds. And, whilst, cables currently direct data center site selection, they (they being cables and data centers) haven't yet been placed side by side, due to a lack of overlap in skills (between subsea engineers and telecoms specialists and cloud providers).?The concept of subsea IXPs is even fainter with the idea of multiplexing and demultiplexing subsea being esoteric, even today.
However, as stated in the?original version of this article, the rate at which new submarine cables are coming online (as well as users and usecalls for a new paradigm in submarine network architecture. We’ve updated our path forward to include IXPs.
Underwater fully sustainable IXPs, connected directly into subsea cables, change how we can bring connectivity to nations, companies and people around the world. We can be more efficient, effective and savvy.
Project Type 1:?
We'll start with the most feasible project type first: Most achievable in the immediate term is where multiple ISPs or companies are already using capacity on a cable. In this scenario, we can act as the physical exchange at an optimal point along the route of the cable – facilitating the exchange (multiplexing) subsea. We can take multiple cables into the wet IXPs, incurring the advantage of connecting a much larger number of networks, too.
Geographical separation in order to protect the architecture in the event of a catastrophic occurrence is possible thanks to this abundance of infrastructure worldwide and even within relatively small geographical regions. It’s feasible that one point along the cable branches off, creating the new IXP and the mainline continues, and touches another, traditional IXP later in its path (as an example of the architecture).
Project Type 2:?
The other way to achieve a similar architecture is to reach critical mass in an area or region as a wet data center provider and as a carrier neutral data center provider. At such a point, we can facilitate and allow interconnectivity between multiple telecommunication carriers and colocation providers with connections between pods. A direct connection between two data centers can offer mutually appealing benefits.?
Project Type 3 (Private Peering)
Whilst the scope of interconnection is different, it's hard to talk about IXPs subsea and to ignore private peering subsea.?
Private Peering:?This refers to direct, bilateral agreements between two network operators (typically Internet Service Providers or large content providers). In private peering, the two parties connect their networks directly, typically through a physical link between their routers. In the traditional sense, private peering involves two networks with routers in the same building, and a direct point-to-point cable between them.?This is an alternative to public peering.? Most of today’s private peering arrangements occur at colocation facilities, independent of a particular carrier.?Private peering interconnections make up most of the traffic on the Internet, especially between the largest networks. Private peering for us possible, but we sometimes get to it quite differently and we can achieve it two ways. The first and most simple is: we network before deployment in the same unit.?It requires forethought and planning, but it as easy as any other private peering exercise.
The second way is to connect the modular pods subsea: For new comers to a clusters of pods already deployed, the new unit(s) can be placed and connected to the right neighbor and peered (unit to unit/pod to pod).
For already deployed units: If two pods, for example, are already in the same neighborhood and identify a peering opportunity, we can facilitate that post-deployment. Essentially connecting the modular pods of the two peers as a separate exercise.
As we expand our core competencies, building and deploying subsea data centers, PFEs, as well as other critical infrastructure, we continue forging meaningful relationships with big and small companies. IXPs are another vector for us and the subsea archetecture.
Summary
Ultimately, IXPs are critical in managing increased traffic and ensuring the scalability of the internet. They serve as the linchpin of the internet's interconnected nature. They enable efficient data exchange, reduce costs, enhance performance, and contribute to the overall stability and growth of the internet ecosystem. Their importance will only continue to grow as the internet evolves and becomes even more integral to our daily lives.
Here is an overview the key benefits as we see them when placed subsea:
1. Reduced Latency: Internet traffic typically relies on undersea fiber optic cables to connect continents. Placing internet exchanges in the middle of these cables can reduce latency given the data no longer needs to travel to a more distant data center on land. Lower latency can improve the performance of real-time applications like video conferencing, online gaming, and financial transactions.
2. Increased Redundancy: Establishing ocean-based internet exchanges adds redundancy to the global internet infrastructure. If one data center or cable connection experiences a disruption, traffic can be rerouted through these exchanges, ensuring continued connectivity between continents.
3. Improved Network Resilience: Oceanic internet exchanges can be designed to be more resilient to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or tsunamis, compared to on-land data centers. This can enhance the overall robustness of the internet, especially in regions prone to geological disturbances.
4. Lower Cooling Costs: Cooling data centers is a significant operational cost. Ocean water can potentially be used for cooling, reducing the energy consumption associated with traditional air conditioning systems.
5. Support for Emerging Technologies: As the demand for low-latency applications like autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and virtual reality grows, ocean-based internet exchanges can provide the necessary infrastructure for these technologies to flourish.?
6. Sustainable Energy Options: Ocean-based data centers could leverage renewable energy sources such as tidal, wave, or ocean current energy to power their operations, contributing to a more sustainable internet infrastructure.
There are multiple scenarios in which subsea IXPs are the solution. And, from saving time and resources, enabling other business to scaling operations efficiently, they are both practical and optimal.
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