IXPN Unveils 2024 Strategic Plans, Highlights Agenda for Growth

Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), one of Africa’s biggest exchange points has unveiled its strategic plans for 2024 with a highlighted agenda for growth, even as it stressed pushing for more connection of IXPs from other African countries into IXPN.

Highlighting its plans and agenda for 2024 at a Membership Engagement Forum, it organized for its members across Nigeria in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, disclosed that the exchange intends to establish additional exchange points in other states in the six geo-political zones of the country.

“Our plans and agenda are simple! What we want to do is connect service providers across the country as well as higher educational institutions into the exchange points to complement the National Research and Educational Network (NGREN). We also want to attract more content providers into the country,” he disclosed at the forum attended by over 70 connected members.

He added that IXPN planned to set up CDNs/Caches in regional IXPN POPs, provide VLAN service within Lagos and remote peering and upgrade its links and switches, which will serve to increase capacity and scalability, enhance performance and reduce latency and support its member’s evolving needs.

The 2024 plans and agenda are coming on the heels of a several milestone and achievements in 2023, where it successfully implemented Netflix Open Connect Appliance (OCA) for Lagos and Abuja to improve Netflix content delivery, enhance user experience and foster a more efficient and attractive IXP for members.

Touted as regional IXP, the exchange was able to achieve 570Gbps peak local Internet traffic in 2023 with an ambitious target of meeting 1 terabyte by the end of this year. This is huge because the growth in internet traffic has been on an upward move every year.

“In 2023, we upgraded the Abuja switch to increase backplane capacity and accommodate more connection requests. We also upgraded the Lagos Google Global Cache (GGC) servers to meet current capacity demands and also as an investment in the future resilience and efficiency of IXPN network,” Rudman said.