IGF 2020 WS #323 Emerging perspectives on the Internet Exchange Points

Relevance to Internet Governance: IXPs are mostly privately own and maintained, although governments also fulfill this role to some extent. Regarding their ownership, IXPs serve to everyone and are responsible for the quality of national and international traffic. This particular function calls for the conjunction of opinions among different stakeholders about their management and maintenance from all stakeholders because all of them get benefited from IXPs, and they serve worldwide to Internet users all over the world. This situation was put under context during the COVID 19 crisis when the Internet keeps a critical role in allowing users (independently of their status) to communicate all over the world. Additionally, in extreme cases, when exists substantial control over the Internet infrastructure, the existence of IXPs also plays a critical role in keeping the Internet operational.

Relevance to Theme: IXPs congregate multiple national and international networks, enabling Internet connectivity in nation-states with extreme forms of government control over the Internet and in times where the COVID 19 kept half of the world population under quarantine. This means that IXPs are relevant from two perspectives as stated in the thematic track: 1.Resilience: thanks to the IXPs the Internet traffic remains functional despite of the high demand in times of the COVID 19 2.Stability: In nation-states where government control, or consider controlling, the Internet infrastructure, IXPs are elements that contribute to keep the open architectural design of the Internet and that support the communication process despite any action executed to shut down the Internet.