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Alarm clocks, body clocks and LONAP AGMs #IXP

On the 07.20 from Lincoln Central Station headed to the LONAP AGM (sung to the tune of Homeward Bound by Paul Simon).

Piece of trivia for you. Traditionally when I catch the 07.20 I get a cab to pick me up from the house at 06.50. We are only 5 minutes from the station, especially at that time of day, and I like to make sure I have plenty of time to get there, just in case of a problem en route.

At that time of day there is never a problem. I always get there far too early and end up spending 10 – 15 minutes in the waiting room. Time that would have been better spent in bed.

In order to get showered and ready for a cab at 06.50 I set the alarm 10 minutes earlier than normal at 06.20. This means I wake up at odd times during the night to check to see if it’s nearly time for the alarm, in case it didn’t go off. Result: terrible night’s sleep.

After years of doing this, and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long, I have come to the realisation that there is never any traffic at that time of day and I am never delayed getting to the station. Last night I booked the cab for 07.00 and left the alarm clock at it’s normal 06.30. Result: great night’s sleep and arrive at the station just before the train pulls in.

Mr Micawber would have said “alarm at 06.20 = misery – alarm at 06.30 = happiness”. Definitely.

Whilst I have your attention I am saying a few words at the LONAP AGM (fwiw). LONAP, if you don’t already know, is the London Access Point, an internet exchange point (IXP) that Internet Service Providers use to connect their customers to different parts of the internet (it’s a big place the internet – ISPs usually use more than one IXP.

LONAP, whilst not the largest, is in the Premier League of IXPs. The chart below shows the top operators. In Europe we have three heavyweights AMS-IX (Amsterdam) , DE-CIX (Frankfurt)  and LINX (another London IXP – London is of global significance in internet terms ).

Peering league table

There are hundreds of IXPs globally. Many will have only a few ISPs connecting but they will grow. In the UK we have IX-Leeds, IX-Manchester and IX Scotland. As traffic over the internet grows we will no doubt see more opening up.

Most IXPs operate as not for profit mutuals though in some countries, notably the USA and Japan they can be commercial operations.

Back to LONAP the AGM is another of those great combinations of work and play. We have some interesting speakers, notably Chas Tomlin of Team Cymru (look em up) and some great networking . I’d better write tomorrow’s post this morning:)

Read more about regional Peering Exchanges and specifically IX-Manchester here.

Lots of posts regarding LINX here.

Euro-IX meetings posts here.

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

One reply on “Alarm clocks, body clocks and LONAP AGMs #IXP”

When I were a lad I’d get up at stupid o’clock to drive to a meeting a long way away. It was either that or get there the night before and stay over.

Nowadays I dont usually arrange meetings that start before lunch so that I have an easier time of it getting there. Only problem is that the 07.20 is the one direct train from Lincoln to London (other than ones that take half the day to get there) so that often becomes the train of choice,

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