Euro-IX: The set up

Euro-IX has been set up as an association in The Netherlands. Euro-IX has an office in Amsterdam and one full time employee who manages the day to day running of the association.

The Euro-IX members have elected seven persons (the Executive board) to make major decisions in running the association and initiating proposals to further improve the value of Euro-IX. The Executive board has in turn elected a Chairman, a Treasurer and a Secretary. The Executive board meets regularly throughout the year and the members meet at least two times per year at different European locations.

Benefits of joining Euro-IX

With now more than 40 IXPs from over 25 different countries, Euro-IX provides a unique platform for IXPs to share information and discuss current topics and issues of interest. Euro-IX provides its members a web portal to help attract further customers, several databases of information that are relevant to IXPs, mailing lists for current discussions, regulatory reports, and the opportunity for all member IXP to come together twice a year for face to face discussions at Euro-IX Forums.

Joining Euro-IX

As Euro-IX is looking to share knowledge between a variety of IXPs, potential new membership is more than encouraged. More than simply IXPs may find interest in joining Euro-IX, thus some basic guidelines have been drawn up to help define what exactly an IXP is. Euro-IX has accepted the industry definition of an IXP as:

"A physical network infrastructure operated by a single entity with the purpose to facilitate the exchange of Internet traffic between Autonomous Systems. The number of Autonomous Systems connected should at least be three and there must be a clear and open policy for others to join."

On meeting the above definition, and so long as the applying organisation is up and running with at least 3 peers and a published customers list, one may apply to join Euro-IX.

Types of membership

Euro-IX offers three possibilities for IXPs around the world to join the association.

1. Standard full membership

Standard full membership allows IXPs to vote on major decisions made at Euro-IX, receive certain subsidies for attending Euro-IX Forums and access to all services that Euro-IX has to offer.

All IXPs that meet the Euro-IX joining requirements and fall within the 'Euro-IX member region' (see blue border of the Euro-IX Region map) may only apply for full membership at Euro-IX.

The standard full membership fee is 4.000 euro per annum.

2. Associated membership

Associate members have full access to all meetings and benefits that Euro-IX has to offer, however do not receive a right to vote at Euro-IX General Meetings, do not receive accommodation subsidies at Euro-IX forums, and current and future Euro-IX services may not be extended to cover regions outside of Europe.

All IXPs that meet the Euro-IX joining requirements and fall outside the 'Euro-IX member region' (see red border of the Euro-IX Region map) may only apply for associate membership at Euro-IX.

The associate membership fee is 3.000 euro per annum.

Note: IXPs that fall outside the blue border yet within the red border, by default, may only apply for associate membership, however on application and board approval they may become full members at Euro-IX.

3. Remote associated membership

This membership category has been established for those IXPs outside of the Euro-IX European region who would like to affiliate themselves with Euro-IX, gain access to the restricted web pages and databases as well as subscribing to the Euro-IX mailing lists, however, do not envisage attending Euro-IX forums on a regular basis. These IXPs do not receive a right to vote at Euro-IX General Meetings, do not receive accommodation subsidies at Euro-IX forums, and would be required to pay an attendance fee if they wished to send a represenattive to an Euro-IX Forum.

Further details on the Remote membership category can be found here.

The remote associate membership fee is 1.000 euro per annum.

The joining procedure

The applying IXP should fill in a:

Standard full membership application form or an
Associate membership application form or a
Remote associate membership application form

As well as printing off, signing a mailing to Euro-IX a:

On receiving the application the Euro-IX Executive board will review it for its legitimacy and in turn make a decision as to whether the applicant meets these predefined guidelines for joining Euro-IX.