Policy

Basic principles

• INX-ZA is responsible for the administration of the INXes and determines policies relating to the INXes.

• Each INX participant is responsible for obtaining one or more circuits to the relevant INX facilities, and for all costs associated with those circuits. INX participants are also responsible for supplying any equipment, such as routers, they require to connect their networks to the INX switches.

• There is no restriction on circuits a participant may terminate at the INXes and participants may use an INX as a key node on their backbone network, provided that they comply with all of the INX policies.

• Peering at the INXes in open to any organisation that has their own uniquely identifiable ASN, and Internet address space.

Traffic Exchange policy

•  A connection to an INX is not the same as an interconnection with other organisations using that Internet Exchange.  INX-ZA does not require INX participants to interconnect with all other INX participants. Each organisation connecting to an INX is free to establish its own policy for interconnection. It is up to each participant at an INX to negotiate interconnection agreements with the other INX participants.  INX-ZA Ops does provide an optional to use, BGP Route Server service to facilitate this.

• Peers are required to peer with the BGP Route-Collector service that is operated by INX-ZA Ops to facilitate debugging.

• Traffic shall not be routinely exchanged between two member interfaces connected to the same peering fabric, operated by the same member.

Fees

• There are no joining fees for the INXes.  

• Monthly port charges apply to connections to the INXes.  The port charges will be reviewed on an annual basis by the community elected INX management committee.

• Port fees may be waived for ports used by Critical Infrastructure (such as DNS Root Servers), and other not-for-profit associations deemed to be good for the Internet.  The INX management committee remains responsible for determining which services are appropriate to have hosted at the INXes, and when port fees should be waived.

• ISPA members may apply for port fee discounts;  please check with the ISPA secretariat for discounts that you may be eligible for.
• DINX port fees have been waived by the INX Committee

Rack space

• The monthly port charge gives that INX user the right to use a maximum amount of rack space depending on the primary port used, as indicated below.  INX-ZA reserves the right to impose additional charges for ISPs using more than this, with appropriate fees to be determined by the INX committee.  
• Rack space may only be available at specific locations, and is not transferrable between sites.
• The above rack space allocation includes any telco infrastructure associated with an INX user.
• All equipment hosted at the INXes must be rack-mounted. INX-ZA reserves the right to disconnect any equipment which is not rack-mounted. The INX management committee may grant exceptions to this rule on case-by-case basis.
• The above policies on rack space are intended to ensure that each INX remains an Internet exchange, and not an equipment hosting facility. Additional rack space will not be made available to INX participants.
• Rack space allocations are not transferable. INX participants may not resell, sublet or give away rack space without permission from INX-ZA.
  
  

Hosting of servers

• No servers or other non-standard equipment may be hosted at an INX without the explicit permission of the INX management committee. Any requests to host third party equipment (e.g. monitoring devices) will be dealt with by the INX management committee on a case-by-case basis.

Insurance

•  Members are responsible for the insurance of their own equipment.

Liability for outages

•  INX Participants using the INXes cannot hold INX-ZA, ISPA, or other INX participants liable for outages of any kind.

Non-compliance

•  INX-ZA reserves the right to terminate any INX user’s access to an INX for non-compliance with INX policies.

Changes to this policy

The INX-ZA management committee reserves the right to make changes to its INX policies, following due consultation with the peering participants.  This policy should be read alongside the INX Technical policy which covers specific technical rues for the IX.