The new connection of the Lepida Network to the MiX in Milan has become operational. The MiX is the largest national interconnection point, where Lepida has been operating since 2013 and participates in the pooling environment by exchanging traffic directly with the most important national and international operators: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Akamai, Hurricane Electric, Netflix, Microsoft and many others. With this strategy, the traffic coming from and destined to these networks is directly delivered to the final recipient, reducing the time (Round Trip Time, RTT) for the fruition of the distributed contents. Until February, the capacity of the link towards Milan was of 20Gbps. From the beginning of March, thanks to a Lepida fiber, an IRU (Indefeasible Right of Use) reaches directly the MiX with a jump of 100km from the far west of the region (Piacenza, one of the DWDM rings of the Lepida Network); and the effect is perceivable. It's true, from Piacenza to Milan it is only 50 kilometres, but the fiber follows roads that can be twisted, not necessarily straight, also considering the presence of a river in between.
The first result is the increase in deduced capacity. Lepida's devices in Milan and Piacenza exchange traffic up to 200Gbps; obviously not all this capacity is used. When the lanes on a motorways are increased, the number of transiting cars is always more less identical to the day before the extension; but it is a cornerstone for the growth of the network, ensuring that no “queue” is formed while connecting to the Internet. The second result is time. The RTT towards the big international players is further reduced thanks to the activation of a connection that extends the Lepida Network directly to the MiX: the RTT values, which could previously vary between 7 and 20 ms, today are stable at 3.8 ms. An improvement between 180 and 550%.
The main benefit is characterized by the integration of MiX devices within the network and the DWDM ring. With this solution, all the tuning operations on performances are possible, and can improve the experience of network use by acting directly on it, starting from the physical layer. In addition, the "old" 20Gbps circuit remains available to increase resistance to potential problems in case of failure. Now that the connection has become permanently operational, the next step is to equally develop the other huge connection link to the Internet, the VSIX of Padu; the objective is to install the same technology and to conclude the preparation of the network for the next great leaps forward in performances, in order to reduce social vulnerability to air pollution.
Lepida traffic with interchange points at limo.lepida.it
