Rome, 8 january 2008
Sistema Pubblico di Connettività
QXN
(Qualified eXchange Network)
Mauro Mascagna (CTO – QXN s.c.p.a.)
1
Qualified eXchange Network

The QXN Consortium

Goals

The Network Infrastructure

Services

Future developments
Pag 2
QXN Consortium - Milestones

Setup date: July 10th, 2006

Founding members: the four major italian TLC Operators
(60%)
(10%)

(5%)
(25%)
On October 2006, QXN Consortium signed a contract with
CNIPA in order to implement and run QXN infrastructure and
services
Pag 3
QXN Consortium – Organization
•Management Board, formed by founding members representing
the four partners of the Consortium:
•1 President (BT Italia)
•1 CEO (Fastweb)
•4 Fastweb representatives
•1 BT Italia representative
•1 Wind representative
•1 Telecom Italia representative
•Technical Committee:
•1 Chairman (QXN Technical Director)
•1 representative each from CNIPA, BT, Fastweb, Wind, Telecom
Italia, Namex, MIX and CG-SPC
Pag 4
QXN Consortium – Main goals



To design, implement, operate and develop a geographicallydistributed IP backbone infrastructure (QXN) acting as an
exchange network among SPC Q-ISP’s** backbones.
To provide Q-ISPs with access to QXN services (such as housing,
access ports, guaranteed bandwith, centralized DNS, NTP
server)
To guarantee equal access conditions to QXN infrastructure and
services both to Members of Consortium and to other Q-ISPs.
**Q-ISP: Qualified Internet Service Provider
Pag 5
QXN within SPC General Framework (1)
Network : QXN
Pag 6
QXN within SPC General Framework (2)
QXN is a “corner stone” within SPC Framework due to its
central role in the following issues:
•SPC management
•Technology and services
•Security
•SPC Future developments
Pag 7
QXN Centrality in SPC management
QXN Consortium, through the work of its bodies (Management
Boards, Technical Committee), acts as an aggregation point among
all actors involved in SPC, that are:
•
•
•
•
CNIPA
Q-ISPs
CG-SPC
NIV
This has a fundamental importance in helping CNIPA to manage a
complex environment as SPC is, due to its “multi-provider” nature.
Pag 8
QXN Centrality in technology and services
Q-ISPs may implement their backbones by using different
technologies, with different services and SLAs and according to
different evolution paths.
QXN “smooths” all these differences, by binding all Q-ISPs to
comply with specific technical requirements and rules set by QXN
Technical Committe.
This results in creating a single SPC “virtual” network (integrating
QXN and QISP’s backbones) that provides all SPC customers (the PAs)
with services with high and homogeneous levels of quality, no matter
what Q-ISP is.
Pag 9
QXN centrality in security
The QXN Points of Presence (PoP) have been implemented by taking
specific care to security issues such as:
• physical security of equipment
• logical security of data and traffic flowing through QXN network,
(by using Firewalls that implement policies for traffic segregation,
network intrusion detection, etc.. )
this resulting in a network infrastructure capable of ensuring high
security and availability levels of service.
Pag 10
QXN centrality in SPC future development
As a central bulding block of SPC Framework, QXN is well suited to
implement and provide new “centralized” services to PAs.
As an example, QXN has already implemented and is currently
running the Centralized SPC Domain Name System service, that
ensures resolution of domain names of all hosts and services that PAs
publish on SPC.
Further services are currently under study by CNIPA.
Pag 11
QXN Network Architecture - Main features

Two PoP based on Cisco technology, located at major italian NAP
(Neutral Access Point) premises in Rome (NAMEX) and Milan (MIX)

High security levels (physical and logical)

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Service Avalilability
One Way Delay
 Packet Loss




= 99,99%
<= 20 Ms
<= 0,05%
One set of technical rules that every Q-ISP must follow in order to
be interconnected to QXN (certification process)
Service Trial completed on July 26th, 2007, Commercial service
started on July 27th, 2007
Pag 12
QXN network architecture
PA x
PA y
INTERNET
INTERNET
SPC Q-ISP A
BRqxn
RUPA
BRqxn
PIR
BRqxn
BRqxn
NODO
QXN
ROMA
NODO
QXN
MILANO
SPC Q-ISP B
PA n
PA 1
PA 2
Pag 13
QXN network architecture


Two nodes - Rome and Milan – interconnected by two redundant high speed
transmission links (2x100 Mbps SDH, upgradable up to 1 Gbps), designed for
high availability (equipment redundancy and physical path diversity)
Each node is equipped with :




n.2 Cisco 7609 high-performance routers (BRqxn – Border Routers QXN)
interconnected locally and to BRqxn at the remote site;
SLA management system (based on Cisco IP SLA solution) in order to
monitor and measure network quality parameters (One Way Delay, Packet
Loss);
Firewall e Intrusion Detection System, in order to protect PA’s data and
traffic flowing through QXN
Infrastructure for housing (rack), in order to accomodate equipment
that QISPs use to interconnect their backbone to QXN nodes. These
equipment must be co-located to the QXN Border Routers
Pag 14
QXN Architecture – network & SLA management
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Sonda
Pag 15
SLA monitoring system
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Cisco 2811
Pag 16
SPC DNS Architecture
N. 2 clusters
of server
(Rome and
Milan)
Pag 17
QXN service offering
• OPA Interconnection

OPO Interconnection

SPC Centralized DNS

SPC official timing source (NTP server)

Network Operation Center
(operating a 24x365 service for
monitoring and operating QXN infrastructure and services)
OPA= Offerta Per le Amministrazioni
OPO= Offerta Per gli Operatori
DNS= Domain Name System
NTP= Network Time Protocol
Pag 18
WHO are the QXN Customers ?
• Current
• The 4 major Italian Telco Operators (BT, TI, Wind, Fastweb)
• SPC Management Center (CG-SPC)
• Coming next
• Node for PA’s Voip interconnection (NIV)
• Application Cooperation Centers
• Future
• Other Q-ISP (with national or regional scope) fulfilling
requirements set by QXN Board and Techical Committe
according to general certification criteria set by CNIPA
• QCN : Qualified Community Networks
Pag 19