FAQs


This is a short list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the HIX.



Who makes the rules?


The University of Hawaii Information Technology Services administers the HIX and is the policy making body.



Who manages the HIX?


The University of Hawai‘i ITS manages the HIX routers and circuit that ties both peering points together. The UH ITS also monitors the routing and reserves the right to isolate networks from the HIX that are the source of routing problems. All reasonable means of contacting the suspected parties will be made prior to isolation.



Is there an uptime guarantee?


The HIX network is maintained on a best effort type of service. The University of Hawai‘i cannot guarantee the availability of the HIX network to its members. To date, there have not been significant outages on the HIX. In the event that the HIX network go down, traffic will (should) reroute out the respective upstream connections.


What about capacity issues?


The two peering points are now connected together at Gigabit Ethernet speeds.


The UH Mānoa peering point can accept 10/100/1000 Base-TX connections.


The DRFxchange can accept 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet connections.


How is routing information handled?


The HIX uses only BGP-4 to exchange routing information between members. The HIX has its AS Number - 19035. All members peer with HIX who in turn acts as a transit AS.


How about IPv6 and Multicast (IPv4 or IPv6)?


The HIX now supports native IPv6 peering via BGP. Contact networks@hawaii.edu for additional details.


The HIX supports multicast with IPv6, but not with IPv4 at this time.



Do I need to use my own IP Addresses?


Members will be assigned a /30 or /31 out of the HIX IP address pool. Note that these networks are not advertised out to the Global Table.



What is the minimum router requirements?


The HIX routing table pales in comparison to the Global Internet table. Currently there are probably less than 2000 routes. Any router that meets this requirement should work.



Is inbound & outbound filtering necessary?


Best practice says to filter both inbound and outbound BGP peering sessions using both AS-Path and IP Prefix filters. It is up to you however to protect your network from other’s mistakes.



What does HIX filter on?


The HIX currently filters on AS-Paths.


This HIX may use IP Prefix filtering at a later date. Any changes will be sent to the hix-l@lists.hawaii.edu mailing list prior to being implemented.



Why only Hawai‘i networks?


The original intent of HIX was to keep Hawai‘i traffic local. In keeping with the original intent, we need to ensure that only Hawai‘i originated routes are in the HIX routing table.



Is there a Looking Glass?


HIX does not have a looking glass at this time.

Hawai‘i Internet Exchange