In this Article

•    Series Introduction
•    Then
•    Now
•    Toronto's Facilities, Exchanges and Networks

Series Introduction

Welcome to the next evolution of the "Meet Me In..." research series. The goal of the series has always been to educate, create awareness, and highlight key facts about where, how and why the physical networks that make up the world's information infrastructure meet.

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Then

The original series featured 151 Front St, the King of Carrier Hotels and network interconnection in Toronto at the time - and it is easily the most important building in Canada. As per the research data, 151 Front St is still reigning champion in Toronto today. Back then, in 2003, were the days of networks measured by a physical presence alone and not ASN’s on an IX. 151 Front had 9 physical networks present and published in the official building Meet Me Room at the time, which was a passive, fiber-only (fibre-only for the Canadians) room in the basement. The Defacto Meet Me Room where electrical, de-muxxed circuits were available, was RACO. RACO was also featured in the original series and had 22 physical networks present as published. The Toronto Internet Exchange Community (TorIX), the largest Internet Exchange in Canada, was one of those “networks” listed at RACO.

Read the original 2003 article

Read the original 2005 article

Now

Once again, and as the research data will prove continually, networks go to where networks already are and the same holds true for IX’s. 151 Front is a jewel. It was then in 2003 and it is ever more so now. Allied Properties REIT owns the building and the official building Meet Me Room, with three other neutral colocation facility operators, Equinix (former RACO / Switch and Data), Cologix and Neutral Data Centers Corp., existing at 151 Front, all providing access to TorIX.

Toronto Internet Exchanges

Currently there are 6 IX’s in 10 facilities within 6 addresses in Toronto. The largest, TorIX, has 247 ASN’s and the smallest, PIX Toronto, has 3 ASN’s published. The difference between the largest IX and 2nd largest, NetIX with 90 ASN’s, is 157. That is a large delta making TorIX the clearly dominant IX in Toronto. These numbers change as networks move on and off of IX’s, but the general direction is typically up.

The Top 5 Networks, by number of IX’s connected to, are CloudFlare, Hurricane Electric, Google, Microsoft and Packet Clearing House.

The tables below display live data on all IXs in the region highlighted in this map image.

Toronto - Internet Exchanges by Location Address

Toronto - Networks by Internet Exchange