MAE-West

MAE-West
Name	MAE-West
Location	Silicon Valley, California
Opened	1990s
Operator	Metropolitan Area Exchanges / Pacific Bell / Equinix
Type	Internet exchange point / peering point

MAE-West MAE-West was a major Internet exchange point located in Silicon Valley that played a central role in early commercial Internet interconnection and peering. It served as a hub for backbone providers, regional networks, content providers, and research networks during the 1990s and early 2000s, influencing the development of commercial Internet infrastructure in the United States. MAE-West connected a broad set of participants including national carriers, research networks, backbone operators, and emerging content services.

History

MAE-West was established amid commercialization trends involving National Science Foundation, Network Solutions, UUNET, Sprint, MCI, PSINet, and AT&T as the Internet transitioned from academic research roots like ARPANET, NSFNET, and Cerf-era architectures toward commercial interconnection. Its creation intersected with policy decisions involving the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and regulatory environment shaped by cases like United States v. AT&T and developments following the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Early deployment involved collaboration among entities such as Metropolitan Area Exchanges, Pacific Bell, and commercial colocation firms including Equinix and Digital Equipment Corporation. MAE-West hosted traffic for research organizations like NASA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and regional networks connected to Internet2 and Abilene Network.

Throughout the 1990s, MAE-West evolved with competitive pressures among carriers including WorldCom, GTE, Verizon-predecessor companies, and independent exchange operators. Major events in the exchange’s timeline paralleled shifts such as the privatization of NSFNET, the growth of content delivery from companies like Akamai Technologies and Yahoo!, and marketplace consolidation episodes exemplified by MCI WorldCom mergers and WorldCom accounting scandal repercussions. As metropolitan colocation markets matured in places like Palo Alto, San Jose, California, and Menlo Park, California, MAE-West’s role adjusted to meet changing peering economics and traffic patterns shaped by services from Amazon.com, Google, and other large content providers.

Architecture and Facilities

MAE-West’s physical architecture combined telecommunications facilities and carrier hotels within Silicon Valley interconnection sites such as buildings owned by Pacific Bell and later operated with infrastructure vendors like Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. The exchange employed high-capacity trunking using technologies evolved from T1 and T3 circuits to SONET, ATM, and eventually Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabrics. Core switching and routing hardware included platforms from Cisco Systems series and competing systems from Juniper Networks and legacy systems from Netscape-era vendors, integrated with network management implementations influenced by Simple Network Management Protocol practices and operational models used by Sprintlink and UUNET.

Colocation services at MAE-West reflected standards from the data center industry led by companies such as Equinix and Digital Realty Trust, featuring redundant power provided by vendors like APC and generator facilities modeled after designs used in major hubs including Seattle-Tacoma and New York City interconnection centers. Security, cross-connect policies, and physical cabinet provisioning followed emerging best practices later codified by organizations like Telehouse and operator consortia.

Network Services and Peering

MAE-West facilitated bilateral and multilateral peering arrangements among backbone providers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, AT&T, and later content networks including Akamai Technologies and Netflix-precursor distribution networks. It supported public peering fabrics and private interconnects, enabling routing policies implemented via Border Gateway Protocol shared across participants including research networks like Internet2 and commercial ISPs such as PSINet. Traffic engineering and route filtering practices at the exchange reflected operational norms popularized in large networks like ASPATH policies from RIPE NCC, ARIN-referenced numbering, and peering agreements similar to those used by Level 3 Communications.

The exchange’s service offerings evolved to accept transit, colocated servers for caching, and specialized services such as multicast support used by media initiatives and events like CES streaming experiments. MAE-West’s peering fabric influenced development of neutral meet-me rooms and cross-connect marketplaces that later became standard in facilities operated by Equinix and TelecityGroup.

Operations and Management

Operational responsibility and management of MAE-West involved coordination among carriers, exchange operators, and facility managers, drawing on operational playbooks from entities such as IETF, IANA-related numbering coordination, and network operations centers modeled after those at NASA Ames Research Center and major ISPs. Day-to-day tasks included capacity planning, outage coordination comparable to incident handling at Amazon Web Services and Google operations, and billing/settlement processes echoing commercial arrangements seen in peering agreements among Level 3 Communications and AT&T.

Governance structures blended neutral exchange policies with commercial arrangements, requiring interconnection agreements influenced by precedent from metropolitan exchanges and regulatory interactions involving Federal Communications Commission filings. The exchange supported network measurement and monitoring tools similar to platforms used by CAIDA and routed traffic statistics that informed backbone topology maps circulated by researchers at institutions such as University of California, San Diego.

Impact and Legacy

MAE-West’s presence accelerated peering dynamics that shaped the commercial Internet, influencing how carriers, content providers, and academic networks exchanged traffic. Its legacy is reflected in the proliferation of Internet exchange points influenced by pioneers such as MAE-East, LINX, DE-CIX, and the neutral colocation models copycatted by companies like Equinix and Digital Realty Trust. Lessons from MAE-West informed policy discussions before bodies like Federal Communications Commission and standards development within IETF, shaping interconnection economics relevant to modern platform disputes involving companies such as Netflix and Comcast.

Technological and operational practices incubated at MAE-West contributed to scaling strategies that enabled high-volume services from Google, Amazon Web Services, and global content delivery networks like Akamai Technologies. Physical marketplace innovations—neutral meet-me rooms, cross-connect pricing, and peering coordinators—remain foundational elements in contemporary colocation ecosystems and Internet topology studies conducted by researchers associated with CAIDA and Stanford University.

Category:Internet exchange points