Promoting Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) is essential for the establishment of a robust digital infrastructure that can support Qatar’s increasing demand for reliable and secure internet access. By connecting multiple networks together, IXP’s allow for more efficient data sharing, which in turn leads to improved performance, reliability and scalability of services and applications. The Internet Society’s Qatar chapter is actively working to create awareness about IXP technology and its importance in order to ensure the country has high-quality digital infrastructure.
The motivation behind the Internet Society Qatar chapter’s promotion of IXPs lies in the fact that they are an essential tool for countries to become more independent on the world stage. By setting up these points of interconnection between local ISPs or networks, local content can be made available much faster than if it had to be sent across different continents. This also reduces latency and improves user experience since data does not need to travel far distances anymore.
In addition, local ISPs are encouraged to route traffic through IXPs because this will reduce their costs due to decreased international bandwidth usage. It can also facilitate internet access by reducing unnecessary hops as well as providing privacy by allowing ISPs to keep their customers’ traffic within their control. Finally, IXPs also provide redundancy should any single network or ISP go offline or suffer an outage – thus improving reliability of services overall.
Qatar is already making great strides in developing its digital infrastructure with various initiatives taking place such as the establishment of its own IXP in 2018; however, it is still important for people in the country to have knowledge about this technology so they can take advantage of its many benefits. This is why organisations like Internet Society Qatar Chapter are working tirelessly towards creating awareness about its importance and facilitating discussions around it with stakeholders across various sectors.
In short, with India now having established its own IXP, encouraging further promotion and discussion around it has become even more important for Qatar – both from a security point-of-view as well as better internet access perspective – making the work done by Internet Society Qatar Chapter even more critical now.