Presentation given by Stephen Wilcox, CEO of IX Reach at PTC'14, entitled “The Role IXPs and Peering Play in the Evolution of the Internet”. Excerpt: "There are over 400 Internet Exchange Points distributed across the world, and growing. The largest and most successful reside in Europe and play a vital role in the growth and evolution of the Internet. There are over 50 IXPs in Europe alone, most promoting local traffic exchange but only a handful recognised as international hubs for interconnections. These particular IXPs continue to increase their value added services and expand globally - most recently to the US - promoting their non-for-profit and neutral business models in varying and emerging markets. This recent expansion makes it all the more important to consider the role IXPs and peering play in the continuing evolution of the Internet and how network operators should approach peering in a network blend. The reciprocal interplay between Tier 1, 2 and 3 networks over IXPs, particularly those with an international focus, has become an interesting addition to the global Internet topology, enabling networks to reduce their costs and the Internet to grow in-line with end-user demand for high-bandwidth content and mobile usage. However, given 99.5% of peering agreements are completed on a hand shake, and the majority are settlement-free, scenarios such as de-peering can still occur, leading to partial Internet black-outs and events such as these need to be taken into consideration when building redundancy into a network. This industry briefing will discuss the most common ways different networks value and utilise IXPs in their network blend, what to consider when choosing peering locations, why some participate at an IXP while others do not, and the de-peering scenarios that can occur and the impact this can have on a network's service. It will also touch on the geographical positioning of major IXPs and the trends in peering partners by selected countries."