What:
The NOAA N-Wave program is undertaking efforts to design, deploy and operate an Alaska Peering Exchange (AlaskaIX) as a voluntary participation local Exchange Point, situated initially in Anchorage, AK. The AlaskaIX will enable direct interconnections between various government, research, and education networks, including Internet service providers (ISPs) and private enterprise networks. This direct link, referred to as peering, allows for the efficient exchange of data traffic among these networks, keeping data traffic destined for the state of Alaska within the state. 

Why:
From daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce, NOAA’s products and services support economic vitality and affect more than one-third of America’s gross domestic product. NOAA’s dedicated scientists use cutting-edge research and high-tech instrumentation to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers with reliable information they need. NOAA annually receives nearly eight terabytes of data from its facilities in Alaska, which is then transmitted to Seattle. Much of this data is subsequently sent back to Alaska for use by entities, such as the University of Alaska and the State of Alaska, who rely on it for essential weather and climate insights. This process not only generates unnecessary costs but also adds extensive latency as the data travels from Alaska to Seattle and then returns to Alaska. In Alaska, where weather conditions can shift quickly with major effects on safety and property, extra delays can be catastrophic. To mitigate this issue, N-Wave is collaborating with both private sector and science, research and education partners to establish a carrier-neutral peering exchange, aimed at eliminating the inefficient data loop, ensuring timely and efficient dissemination of Alaska data directly to Alaska.

How:
Since 2013, N-Wave has built new infrastructure to provide higher speed connectivity to NOAA sites in Alaska. In the past three years, N-Wave built an Alaska backbone connecting Seattle, Anchorage and Fairbanks to N-Wave in Seattle, establishing a ring to land NOAA sites, and other government agencies statewide. This backbone creates a high speed, shared cost infrastructure and leverages multiple wire centers throughout the state. The peering exchange is physically located at the ACS North Wire Center in Anchorage, Alaska, and was chosen for its proximity to the N-Wave Alaska core along with the future NOAA Trusted Internet Connection Access Provider service (TICAP).

The NOAA TICAP, with adjacent peering exchange, provides a highly optimized data ingress/egress point for N-Wave federal customers. N-Wave will deploy and manage the peering exchange leveraging industry standards and best practices used at existing exchanges. For exchange updates on the deployment status, availability and instructions for joining the exchange, please visit alaskaix.net offsite link.

NOAA’s N-Wave Launches Carrier Neutral Peering Exchange in Alaska

Alaska is unique due to its extensive rural landscape and the numerous challenges this poses for government agencies who operate in this environment and rely on broadband access and quality network connectivity to fulfill their missions. As the network service provider for NOAA, Department of Commerce bureaus and other federal agency partners, N-Wave recognized an opportunity to work with its public and private partners in the state to bring about a fundamental change for how local network data traffic is routed by creating a carrier-neutral Alaska Peering Exchange (known as AlaskaIX). 

The idea for this effort began with the Alaska Region Technology Interchange Consortium (ARTIC), which N-Wave formed to bring together representatives from agencies, tribal nations, the science, research and education community and other non-profit partners. During recent ARTIC meetings, N-Wave discussed the feasibility of an in-state peering exchange and through cross-collaboration with this talented group, began putting into motion the planning and operations for this project.    

The mechanics for how it will work is simple. The AlaskaIX will be operated as a voluntary participation local exchange point, situated initially in Anchorage, Alaska, and enable direct interconnections between various government, research, and education networks, including Internet service providers (ISPs) and private enterprise networks. This direct link, referred to as peering, allows for the efficient exchange of data traffic among these networks and eliminates the high latency data loop – from Alaska to Seattle and then routed back to Alaska. The goal is to ensure the timely and efficient dissemination of Alaska data by keeping it within the state. 

As FY24 came to a close, N-Wave achieved its lofty goal! The technical design, deployment and configuration of the AlaskaIX is now complete and the first ever peering exchange in Alaska is operational. N-Wave is now working with the first round of local Alaska telecom provider partners to gain access to, and begin exchanging routes. N-Wave will continue to look at avenues of expansion and ways to encourage additional partner integration and participation by agencies, tribal nations and educational institutions within the state.  

For more information about the AlaskaIX, visit alaskaix.net offsite link.