AMS-IX is responsible for the correct functioning of its distributed switching infrastructure. The AMS-IX service consists of delivering, operating and interconnecting member ports on our switches, including service from these member ports up to and including the local AMS-IX patch panel. The customer is responsible for the necessary cabling between the member's router and the AMS-IX switch patch panel through the arrangements made with an AMS-IX co-location or, in case of a remote layer-2 connection, arrangements made with a partner/carrier. The customer is always responsible for arranging their own BGP peering with other AMS-IX members and for the correct functioning of their own infrastructure, i.e. router equipment.

Initial connection

The initial provisioning of a customer connection (i.e. port on the AMS-IX switching platform) will take a maximum of five (5) working days (Mon-Friday 9.00-18.00 CET) after acceptance of the customer’s order, providing that the customer has an agreement with the chosen AMS-IX colocation and after return of the signed AMS-IX Connection Agreement by the candidate customer, or on the envisaged date of the connection, as indicated by the customer in the port order form.

In case a new customer wants to become a member of the AMS-IX Association the member acceptance process may take up to 3 working days.

Upon first delivery of service the port will initially be placed in the quarantine VLAN. This allows the customer to physically install/configure their router and other equipment at the housing location(s), finalise the cabling arrangements with the co-location or layer-2 service provider and subsequently verify basic (L1/L2 and ping) connectivity to the AMS-IX platform. Also, this stage of the process allows the AMS-IX NOC to verify that the customer’s equipment is configured according to the AMS-IX rules for connecting. Once this is done and the AMS-IX NOC has concluded that the interface is “clean” (see item service quality), the interface is placed into the appropriate production VLAN.

Connection changes

For changes in the configuration without contractual implication we schedule a provisioning time of 3 working days.

For configuration changes with a contractual implication, e.g. additional connections or port upgrades, we schedule a provisioning time of a maximum of 5 working days after receipt of the signed revised Connection Agreement.

The customer can always indicate his own envisaged date of delivery, which AMS-IX will honour as much as possible.

The aim of the AMS-IX Network Operations Centre is to have a network availability of at least 99.99%. AMS-IX considers both service interruption as well as deterioration of service as service failure.

Excluded from this definition are service failures due to:

• Scheduled maintenance
• Violations of AMS-IX regulations by members causing dis-functioning of the exchange
• Force majeure

Service deterioration is defined as not performing according to the set performance parameters outlined below.

Port Hygiene

AMS-IX strives to maintain very high levels of quality of service for all of its customers. We are able to maintain this high service quality because of our rigorous testing of new installations and equipment, our adhering to standard procedure where possible, while being flexible where necessary. In addition we make sure when connecting new customers that the customer is aware of, and adheres to, the rules for allowed traffic types on the AMS-IX infrastructure. These rules are enforced in part by actively monitoring the platform, in part by switch configuration statements. In this way we limit the potential risk, that is inevitably present in a layer 2 network environment, of ill-behaving customer equipment adversely affecting other customers’ service experience. We sometimes refer to these rules as 'port hygiene measures'.

Service quality targets

Performance Measurement

To measure these KPI's AMS-IX makes use of Delay Measurement Messages provided by the ITU-T Y.1731 Ethernet OAM standard. Every switch in the network has a measurement probe attached to it which exchanges these messages over the platform in a separate VLAN. The measurement frames are sent out 10 times per second for delay and jitter measurements, and once per second for frame loss measurements.

Real-time delay statistics

Delay and jitter are measured 10 times per second, frame loss once per second. These are aggregated to 1 minute averages and displayed in the Real-Time Platform Statistics.

> See real-time stats

Our Network Operations Centre actively monitors the AMS-IX infrastructure 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. Problems can be reported to the AMS-IX NOC via email or telephone.

When a problem is reported, the AMS-IX NOC opens a trouble ticket and assigns an engineer to resolve the problem. The customer is kept up to date of resolution by email. In exceptional cases, e.g. when a customer cannot be reached via email because of the reported network failure, the NOC can agree to keep the customer’s staff up-to-date by phone instead.

In case of service failure (disruption or deterioration) we aim to resolve within 4 hours of reporting. Other issues or requests will be resolved as soon as possible. A ticket will not be closed without the customer’s consent.

In case a customer feels there is a need to escalate a problem, the request is relayed to our Chief Technical Officer.

All trouble tickets can be reviewed through the member portal on the AMS-IX website. In many cases, problems are discussed on our tech-l interactive mailing list to which the AMS-IX NOC and all customers’ technical contacts are (or can be) subscribed.

To ensure the required Quality of Service and facilitate continuous growth, the AMS-IX platform is maintained on a day-to-day basis and upgraded regularly. Such upgrades are always carried out during scheduled maintenance windows, between 00:00 and 06:00 CET

A scheduled maintenance is always announced to the tech-l mailing list.

Scheduled maintenance is defined as follows:

• A period of time during which the AMS-IX platform may not perform at the usual quality level. This is typically related to work being done to fix or improve the platform. Scheduled maintenance is always announced to the tech-l mailing list with at least 72 hours notice.

In addition to the above, it may occur that equipment needs to be replaced immediately, because of hardware or software malfunctioning detected by the AMS-IX NOC. In such cases the replacement work may involve so called Emergency Scheduled Maintenance which will also be announced to the tech-l mailing list, however it will not be announced well in advance. This, of course, is due to the immediate nature of the required repair activity and is always up to the discretion of the AMS-IX technical team.