A day in the life of the Internet: Hong Kong

On Jan. 19, we stationed reporters at eight network access points around the globe to find out just what it takes to keep the Internet humming.

By CLARE HANEY
Network World, 03/01/99

CLARE HANEY HONG KONG, JANUARY 19 -- HKIX (Hong Kong Internet eXchange), established in April 1995, is a non-profit operation run by the Computer Services Center/Information Technology Service Unit at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The university campus is located in a highly scenic spot against the backdrop of the hills and countryside surrounding the city of Shatin in the New Territories of Hong Kong.

The aim of the exchange is to interconnect locally based IAPs (Internet access providers) so that they can exchange intra-Hong Kong traffic without routing such traffic through the U.S., which is more costly.

Only IAPs properly licensed by OFTA (the Office of the Telecommunications Authority) in Hong Kong can be members of HKIX. To join the exchange, IAPs need to lease a dedicated circuit (at least 1.536M bit/sec) to HKIX and come and set up their router at the university so it can be connected up to the exchange's Ethernet.

HKIX currently has around 50 IAPs including AT&T EasyLink, Global One and UUNet, along with Asian players China Telecom, Hongkong Telecom and NTT Hong Kong. The University and Hong Kong Academic and Research Network (HARNET) which connects up all universities in Hong Kong are also on HKIX.

At present, the exchange doesn't charge IAPs for its services, but will do so in near future, although the amount of such a fee is yet to be determined, according to Che-Hoo Cheng, who heads up HKIX. He explains that charging IAPs will be necessary to cover the exchange's cost of operations following a cut in the university's overall budget by the Hong Kong government. Cheng believes that instituting a charge will result in an enhanced level of service for IAPs, since at present the exchange can't hire more staff. HKIX intends to remain a not-for-profit organization, he added.

The core of the exchange's system is a Cisco Catalyst 5500 switch to which IAPs' co-located routers hook up either via 10M bit/sec or 100M bit/sec Ethernet connections. A Cisco 7507 router acts as the route server and there are BGP4 (routing protocol) sessions with all participants. HKIX manages the route filters on the route server to ensure routing stability.

The scene at HKIX is highly professional, more like an end-user company set-up than an academic establishment. A large well-lit room in the Computer Center contains the exchange's switch and routers which are housed in glass-fronted cream cabinets on the left as one enters the room. Beyond the units at a bank of five or six computers sit two HKIX operators, two full-time male employees casually dressed in sweaters and jeans. The room is pretty bare, lacking any personal touches and there is no sign of food, beverages or magazines. The bulk of the room on the right hand side is taken up with all the necessary equipment to run the university's campus network.

This reporter's guides around the exchange are the HKIX's two engineers Walter Lee and Y.L. Yeng. Both men are dressed casually and are friendly, but somewhat shy in the way of techies the world over.

Lee and Yeng only work part-time for HKIX, the rest of the time they're busy as computer officers in the data communications and networking section of the university's information technology service unit. Lee estimates he spends eight hours per week working for HKIX, while Yeng says he devotes 12 hours per week to the exchange. "We just monitor our switch, it's a very minimal workload," Yeng says.

The exchange is still far off reaching its capacity which Cheng estimates theoretically at being 3.6G bit/sec. The peak traffic is typically 60Mpbs averaged over five minute intervals.

Perhaps indicating that most traffic comes from home users checking their e-mail or engaging in real-time chat, the peak time of day for the interchange is midnight. Most days follow the same pattern with the weekdays being slightly more busy than the weekends. As the traffic volume is always increasing, the peak time of the month is at the end of the month.

As for dealing with Internet congestion, the point of potential problem is at the circuit from the ISP to HKIX, says Cheng. The options are upgrading if a normal leased line is involved, or using the public ATM circuit.

HKIX captures the SNMP data of all connections from the 5500 switch and 7507 router and publishes the aggregated results on its Web site. HKIX does have data on the performance of individual IAPs, but doesn't make it publicly available, because it could be seen as revealing competitive information.

HKIX doesn't engage in communications with other large 'Net sites. "It might be a good thing," Lee says somewhat wistfully. "It might make turnaround (in dealing with problems) smaller."

The exchange does send out e-mails to its IAPs regarding operational issues. Currently, HKIX e-mails a list of its route filters to all its IAPS every week for them to check the information. However, the exchange is currently beta testing Looking Glass, an application based on open source software which will enable IAPs to see the routing information whenever they wish.

If IAPs do notice any problems, they can call HKIX operators for help. Operators are on duty 24 hours a day, every day, aside from major public holidays such as Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. Engineers or technicians also staff the site from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. typically. Overtime is common, Cheng says.

On each shift, there is usually a manager -- Cheng -- two engineers -- Lee and Yeng -- and two technicians. Two or three operators staff each shift -- there are three shifts a day.

When HKIX was first established, just a coaxial cable was used to interconnect the routers. Next, the exchange moved to a UTP hub, then a Cisco Catalyst 3000, then a 5000 and now a 5500. The route server was originally a Cisco 2501 router, now it's a 7507.

Cheng has seen a lot of changes over the past few years. "In the old days, only techies set up ISPs. Now, mainly businessmen, telecom companies and large enterprises set up ISPs. Techies are not important anymore," he says. ISPs today tend not to know each other or cooperate as much as they did in the past, he adds.

Lee thinks that the Internet is quite a stable environment, while Yeng agrees with him "with reservations."

"The whole Internet is not the responsibility of one party, it's the result of cooperation between different parties," Yeng says. "If one party doesn't cooperate with others, it maybe doesn't result in instability, but will cause inconvenience to end-users."

Read the stories of individual NAPs by clicking on their city name below: