DE-CIX (Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange) is an operator of carrier- and data-center-neutral Internet exchanges (IXs), with operations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. All DE-CIX activities and companies are brought together under the umbrella of the DE-CIX Group AG. The DE-CIX

Internet exchange point Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of Internet Protocol, IP networking, allowing participant Internet service provider, Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are ...

(IXP) situated in

Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake Main, it forms a contin ...

, is one of the largest IXPs worldwide and the largest in Europe in terms of peak traffic, with throughput of 17.09 terabits per second (Tbit/s) in April 2024. In addition to DE-CIX in Frankfurt, DE-CIX operates IXPs in approximately 40 locations around the globe, with three further IXs exchanging peak traffic in excess of 1 Tbit/s, these being DE-CIX New York, DE-CIX Madrid, and DE-CIX Mumbai, with DE-CIX Mumbai becoming the largest IXP in the Asia-Pacific according to PeeringDB in 2021.

Global partner IXs

The DE-CIX global IXs (including presence in partner IXs) include: Europe:

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

(powered by BCIX),

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

(powered by InterLAN),

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Frankfurt,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

(powered by NIX.CZ), Ruhr-CIX powered by DE-CIX, SEE-CIX powered by DE-CIX in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

(powered by ATMAN) Nordics:

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Africa:

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...

(DRC),

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

(Nigeria), and Tripoli (Libya) North America:

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, New York, Phoenix, and Richmond GCC: Aqaba IX powered by DE-CIX in Jordan, UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX in Dubai), IRAQ-IXP powered by DE-CIX India:

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, and

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Southeast Asia:

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Johor Bahru Johor Bahru, abbreviated as JB, is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Johor. It is the core city of Johor Bahru District, Malaysia's second-largest district by population and the second-largest district economy. Covering an area of ...

Bandar Seri Begawan Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) is the capital and largest city of Brunei. It is officially a Municipalities of Brunei, municipal area () with an area of and an estimated population of 100,700 as of 2007. It is part of Brunei–Muara District, the s ...

(Borneo-IX powered by DE-CIX) and

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

(powered by GetaFIX)

Executive board

Ivo Ivanov (CEO), Thomas King (CTO), Christian Reuter (CSO) and Felix Hintze (CFO) are responsible for the global business as DE-CIX's executive board. Felix Höger, Klaus Landefeld, Rudolf van Megen and Harald A. Summa comprise the supervisory board of DE-CIX Group AG. In addition, Harald A. Summa was the managing director of DE-CIX Group AG from 1996 to 2022 and chair of the executive board from 2017 to 2022.

History

DE-CIX was founded in 1995 by three Internet service providers (ISPs): Hamburg-based MAZ, EUnet from

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

and XLink from

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

. Back then, German Internet traffic was still exchanged in the United States. To improve latency and reduce costs for backhaul connectivity, these ISPs decided to establish an Internet exchange in the back room of a postal office in Gutleutviertel in Frankfurt, and were the first to connect their networks in Frankfurt at DE-CIX. DE-CIX was originally managed by Electronic Commerce Forum, now known as eco – Association of the Internet Industry. Other providers joined and made DE-CIX and Frankfurt the hotspot for the German internet. In 1998, DE-CIX moved its switching hardware to the Interxion data center in Frankfurt. By 2000, DE-CIX had become Germany's largest Internet exchange and was ranked as one of the larger Internet exchanges in Europe. DE-CIX added its second switching site at the Interxion campus in 2001 and a third site in close proximity to its original roots at the TelecityGroup data center in 2004. Until 2006,

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

switches supported the growth in customers and traffic. DE-CIX extended its reach to additional data centers, introducing Force10 and

Brocade Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...

switches and scaling the platform to over 700 10-Gigabit ports. Over the years, DE-CIX has attracted networks from all over the world, especially from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, leading to an annual traffic growth rate of up to 100 percent per year. In 2012, DE-CIX began its international expansion with the establishment of its first Internet exchange outside of Germany, UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX, in partnership with du/datamena in Dubai. Following this, in 2014, DE-CIX established its first Internet exchange in North America with the launch of DE-CIX New York. Further expansions followed in close succession, in Southern Europe in 2016, in India in 2018 with Mumbai-IX powered by DE-CIX, later to become DE-CIX Mumbai, and in 2021 in Southeast Asia. In 2013, DE-CIX introduced DE-CIX Apollon, its new

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

-based platform. The platform utilizes the ADVA Optical Networking FSP 3000 and Infinera CloudExpress 2 gear for the optical backbone, and Nokia’s 7950 XRS series and Nokia’s 7750 SR-s series for the IP network. The optical backbone has a total capacity of 48 terabits per second across a mesh-network topology and provides transport speeds of up to eight terabits per second per fiber. DE-CIX Apollon utilizes DWDM equipment and is built on a switching layer supported by Nokia (former Alcatel-Lucent) service routers, which support up to 1440x100 Gigabit Ethernet ports or up to 288x400 Gigabit Ethernet ports. In 2017, DE-CIX began to develop interconnection services for the enterprise sector, beginning with the introduction of DirectCLOUD, a service that enables customers to access cloud service providers. In 2022, the DirectCLOUD service enabled connectivity to more than 50 cloud service providers, including specialized local CSPs and global hyperscalers. Other interconnection services specifically designed for the needs of enterprises include: the Microsoft Azure Peering Service, Closed User Groups, and InterconnectionFLEX. In 2019, DE-CIX was one of 3 IX operators to jointly develop the IX-API, which provides the basis for the automation of interconnection services over IXPs. In 2021, DE-CIX received a patent for its security service “Blackholing Advanced”, which enables innovative filtering mechanisms in the protection of networks against DDoS attacks. DE-CIX experienced massive growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, regularly breaking traffic throughput records. DE-CIX Frankfurt, for example, exceeded 9 tbit/s peak traffic for the first time in March 2020, and 10 tbit/s in November of the same year. In September 2022, a data throughput of 13.65 terabits per second was achieved at DE-CIX Frankfurt for the first time. According to its Annual Report 2021, DE-CIX had a connected customer capacity of over 96.2 Tbit/s at the end of 2021. By September 2022, more than 3,000 network operators (carriers), ISPs, content providers, corporate networks and other organizations from more than 100 countries were connected to DE-CIX, including major carriers, content and Internet service providers, and numerous enterprise customers. As of the same date, the company operates approximately 40 IXs on four continents, and its interconnection services are accessible from data centers in over 600 cities worldwide.

Interception and monitoring by intelligence services

The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has intercepted DE-CIX traffic since 2009, when the

German Chancellery The Federal Chancellery (, ) is a Germany, German Federal agency (Germany), federal agency serving the executive office of the chancellor of Germany, the head of the Government of Germany, federal government, currently Friedrich Merz. The Chancel ...

put pressure on DE-CIX to cooperate with the BND. The BND mirrors the daily traffic via DE-CIX and evaluates it. The DE-CIX node in New York is operated by DE-CIX North America Inc., a subsidiary of the German company, and is subject to US law. The DE-CIX node UAE-IX in Dubai must also "comply with the local legal regulations on the transfer of data.

References

External links