MN-IX: growing a resilient Internet hub in the Gulf
An AMS-IX Story
Taha Hussain Marathi
Regional Sales Manager
Since launching in early 2020, the Manama Internet Exchange (MN-IX) has been steadily growing into an important part of the Internet infrastructure in Bahrain and the wider Gulf region. Built and run in collaboration with AMS-IX, MN-IX was set up to do something quite simple: help keep Internet traffic local where possible, improve performance, and strengthen the resilience of the regional Internet. What started as a small but ambitious platform has, over the past few years, developed into a stable and increasingly diverse peering ecosystem.
From the first peers to a growing community
MN-IX connected its first networks in 2020, at a time when reliable connectivity was more critical than ever. By the end of that first year, 14 networks were already connected — an encouraging start that showed there was real demand for a neutral Internet Exchange in the region.
Fast forward to 31 December 2025, and MN-IX connects 25 networks, a 79% increase over six years. Today, the platform brings together a broad mix of participants, including:
- global content and cloud providers, like Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft
- regional and international telecom operators, like Batelco by Beyon and Etihad Atheeb Telecom
- Internet infrastructure and DNS providers, like PCH and Gulf Bridge International
This mix matters. It allows content, services, and access networks to exchange traffic efficiently and locally, reducing reliance on distant upstream paths and improving user experience across the region.
For participants, this value shows up in day-to-day operations. As Max Liu, CEO of Kaopu Cloud, puts it:
“We are proud to have been a Manama-IX member for almost four years now. Manama-IX is growing into a leading Internet hub in the MENA region. It empowers ISPs, businesses, content providers, and cloud service providers with unparalleled Internet exchange capabilities, excellent performance, and robust security.”
Scaling capacity as the ecosystem matures
Growth at an Internet Exchange isn’t just about how many networks connect — it’s also about how those networks scale over time. Between 2023 and 2025, the number of active ports at MN-IX increased from 43 to 45, a 9% rise. In the same period, active port capacity grew from 1.5 Tb/s to 1.7 Tb/s, an increase of 14% in three years.
This reflects a pattern we see at many maturing IXPs: rather than adding lots of small ports, networks upgrade to higher capacities. At MN-IX today, 100G ports are increasingly common, especially among large content platforms and national operators, while smaller networks continue to connect at 1G and 10G — giving them room to grow at their own pace.
Sustained traffic growth
Traffic levels tell another important part of the story. In 2025, MN-IX reached an all-time peak traffic of 444 Gb/s, more than double the peak seen in 2020, which stood at 208 Gb/s. There was a noticeable dip between 2022 and 2023 after the departure of Mobily, but the recovery since then highlights the resilience of the platform and the strength of the broader ecosystem.
Reaching a new record peak shows that growth is not driven by a single network, but by a healthy and diverse community of peers.To put 444 Gb/s into perspective, that’s equivalent to:
- around 88,800 HD video streams running at the same time,
- roughly 2.2 million people playing Minecraft simultaneously, or
- more than 10 million A4 pages of text transferred every second across the exchange.
Beyond peak moments, overall traffic volumes have also increased significantly. Over the course of 2025, a total of 873 petabytes (PB) of traffic was exchanged at MN-IX — an average of 73 PB per month. That’s more than four times the volume seen in 2020, when annual traffic totaled 194 PB.
Strengthening the regional Internet
Looking back at its first six years, MN-IX shows what a local Internet Exchange can deliver: lower latency, reduced dependence on international transit, and a more resilient and interconnected regional Internet.
By operating a neutral, scalable, and standards-based peering platform — supported by the operational experience of AMS-IX — MN-IX continues to help networks exchange traffic efficiently and reliably.
As the ecosystem keeps growing, capacities scale, and traffic volumes increase, MN-IX plays an increasingly important role in keeping the Internet in Bahrain and the wider Gulf region fast, local, and resilient, today and into the future.
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