AS5459 LINX-AS London interconnection point

LINX-AS, described in the registry simply as the London interconnection point —

the London Internet Exchange, one of the largest and oldest internet exchange

points in the world.

What it's used for

• LINX's own infrastructure and services as an exchange operator: the address space underpinning its peering fabric and the systems that run it.

Notable

• An IXP's ASN is not a transit network. Members exchange traffic directly with each other over the exchange fabric, each under its own AS number; LINX itself is the venue, not a hop in the path. LINX's route servers, which do mediate peering between members, run under a separate ASN.
• LINX was founded in the mid-1990s by a handful of UK ISPs who wanted to keep domestic traffic in the country instead of hauling it across the Atlantic and back. The low AS number dates from that period.

Interesting

• The "keep local traffic local" argument that started LINX is the same one every IXP has made since. It is why an AS number attached to a building full of cross-connects ended up among the most consequential on the list.