DE-CIX (Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange) is one of the Internet Exchange Points that carries more traffic worldwide. Currently, it operates neutral interconnection platforms in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia.
Infrastructure and interconnection
The mission of DE-CIX is to make interconnection easy anywhere. It was established in the 1990s in Frankfurt, Germany, and began its international expansion in 2014. Nowadays, this IXP offers connections from over 500 cities distributed over about 80 countries around the world. In data centers where DE-CIX does not have its own hardware, they rely on partners to get customers connected.
DE-CIX Apollon platform
The DE-CIX Apollon platform is an Ethernet-based interconnection platform. It was built to manage the constant growth in customers and data traffic, and it is completely redundant. It is used by all its Internet Exchange Points, except for Berlin, Bucharest, Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and the IXPs in India.
Traffic in Frankfurt
Frankfurt is DE-CIX’s leading Internet Exchange Point. During the past twelve months, DE-CIX Frankfurt has managed about 11 Tbit/s on average and it has reached traffic peaks above 15 Tbit/s (the highest: 15.81 Tbit/s in October 2023). The following graph shows average traffic exchange in Frankfurt from October 2022 to October 2023. Daily updated Frankfurt stats are available on their website.
DE-CIX in the Iberian Peninsula
The strategic position of the Iberian Peninsula has contributed to attract investments from connectivity and data center providers. Thus positioning the region as an emerging data centers market in Southern Europe. As part of its neutral interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, DE-CIX has the following Internet Exchange Points in the Iberian Peninsula: Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon.
Traffic in Madrid
DE-CIX Madrid is part of the IXP’s neutral interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, together with Barcelona, Lisbon, Marseille and Palermo. During the past twelve months, DE-CIX Madrid has managed about 604 Gbit/s on average and it has reached traffic peaks above 1 Tbit/s (the highest: 1.25 Tbit/s in April 2023). The following graph shows average traffic exchange in Madrid from October 2022 to October 2023. Daily updated Madrid stats are available on their website.
Traffic in Barcelona
DE-CIX Barcelona is part of the IXP’s neutral interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, together with Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille and Palermo. During the past twelve months, DE-CIX Barcelona has managed about 12 Gbit/s on average and it has reached traffic peaks above 25 Gbit/s (the highest: 25.47 Gbit/s in October 2023). The following graph shows average traffic exchange in Barcelona from October 2022 to October 2023. Daily updated Barcelona stats are available on their website.
Traffic in Lisbon
DE-CIX Lisbon is part of the IXP’s neutral interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, together with Barcelona, Madrid, Marseille and Palermo. During the past twelve months, DE-CIX Lisbon has managed about 27 Gbit/s on average and it has reached traffic peaks above 78 Gbit/s (the highest: 78.33 Gbit/s in October 2023). The following graph shows average traffic exchange in Lisbon from October 2022 to October 2023. Daily updated Lisbon stats are available on their website.
DE-CIX history and evolution
DE-CIX was founded in 1995 in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2020, it celebrated its 25th anniversary and it continues to grow worldwide. It started in an old post office, interconnecting 3 ISPs — MAZ (Hamburg), EUnet (Dortmund) and XLink (Karlsruhe). However, their founders quickly realized its potential and in 1998 they already moved the first switch to the Interxion data center.
Its growth in traffic has been amazing. It went from a peak traffic of 40 MBit/s in 1995 to 49 GBit/s in 2005 and 5.1 TBit/s in 2015. In December 2019, they set a new world record: 8,1 TBit/s and, in 2023, the IXP in Frankfurt has reached peaks over 15 TBit/s. Currently, apart from its interconnection platforms in Germany, it operates in many cities around the world: New York, Chicago, Madrid, Lisbon, Istanbul and Singapore, among others.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the IXP created a microsite about its 25 years of interconnection where you can find a lot of interesting data and content.
Stackscale is connected to DE-CIX Madrid and Barcelona with a clear objective: improving our connection routes to all the providers that exchange traffic there. In addition to these Internet Exchange Points, we are connected to others such as AMS-IX and we are interconnected to diverse Tier 1 operators and a great number of companies through private peering agreements.
Discover more about our network.
