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Microsoft Connected Caches are going live!

We’re expanding our CDN offering! Next Tuesday, 12 August 2025, Microsoft Connected Caches (MCC) are going live on our exchanges in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth via AS10084.

This will bring Microsoft content such as OS updates, games, applications, and static assets even closer to your users. MCC delivers content not available via AS8075.

During our testing in a single exchange we saw cache traffic egress over 20-40Gbps, so we expect members to see notable traffic spikes during Microsoft’s weekly release schedule each Wednesday (AU time)

MCC is by default opt-in, so we recommend checking your port sizing to avoid congestion. If you need time out to upgrade, opt-out BGP communities are available – see our CDN policy control communities page for details.

Questions? Reach out to us at peering@internet.asn.au.

QV1 - reign over

QV1 is gone

WA-IX’s first ever PoP in QV1 is no more. IAA has left the building. In March this year, our longest-running Point of Presence and the birthplace of the commercial internet in WA, was decommissioned.

Closing a legacy site is never easy, and QV1 didn’t go quietly. The final tidy-up was a mammoth task and a true archaeological dig through decades of networking relics and general detritus.

In the deepest recesses we found layer upon layer of history and horror. There were coiled-up cables dating back decades, disused gear long since replaced, and a truly shocking quantity of general tech junk. Old scrap, torn packaging, a Krone block, empty Krone logbooks, and even a GBIC to Ethernet module that sparked a wave of nostalgia. There were also the less savoury finds. A half empty tuna can. A long-forgotten yoghurt tub. We didn’t check the expiry dates. We didn’t want to know. Somewhere in there may still be an AUI adapter from a Cisco 2511 (and the lost treasure of the Sierra Madre), but we chose to stop digging.

Thanks to a solid team effort, the site is now restored to its former condition. Perhaps even better. 

As we shared earlier in the year, QV1’s age and constraints meant it could no longer keep up with the standards we set for our infrastructure. While it will always be part of our history, we need to evolve to meet the expectations of Members and the demands of modern networks.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the clean-up, the decommissioning, and the memories.

As one of the team put it:
“I’ve been looking forward to this day since the first argument about whether we should keep it. That was at least two UPS and one air con upgrade ago.”

QV1, you were something. But your reign is over.

Share your memories of QV1 with us:

Click here

Question from the desk

Image of confused math lady meme with caption Wait... an IXP is really just a switch?

The truth about IXPs: No routing, just switching

⚡️Network Engineers & Internet Peering Enthusiasts, let's talk about something fundamental yet often misunderstood!⚡️

When we talk about the power and efficiency of the Internet, we often highlight Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) as critical interconnection hubs. And they absolutely are! However, it’s crucial to remember that a typical Internet Exchange fabric is a pure Layer 2 construct.

What does that mean in practical terms?

An IXP does NOT perform any routing for or on behalf of its peering participants.

Think of it this way:

It’s a giant, shared Ethernet switch. Your router connects to it, and its sole purpose is to forward Ethernet frames between connected participants’ routers based on MAC addresses.

Each participant is responsible for their own routing decisions. The IXP itself only influences which routes you learn from their route servers, or advertise via their route servers, based on things like attached control communities and RPKI ROA validity. This doesn’t include so-called “bi-lateral” BGP sessions with peering partners directly across the exchange, which are entirely free of IXP influence!

No IP forwarding tables, no MPLS labels, no routing protocols running within the IXP’s core fabric for participant traffic. Most IXP’s operational networks will have their own underlay routing, but that’s distinct from the participant traffic plane.

Why is this understanding critical?

– Troubleshooting: If you’re experiencing routing issues with a peer at an IXP, your focus should be on your BGP configuration, your router’s health, and the peer’s BGP configuration – not on the IXP “routing” your traffic incorrectly.

– Architecture: IXP peering is decentralised by nature. You’re effectively building direct relationships with others, not relying on a central router.

– Security: An IXP isn’t inspecting or manipulating your IP packets beyond some basic ingress filtering of “nuisance” traffic, to ensure the health of the exchange. Ultimately, the exchange simply provides physical and data link layer connectivity between networks.

– Performance: The beauty of Layer 2 is its speed and simplicity. It allows direct, low-latency communication between networks, which is exactly what IXPs want to give peers!

Next time you connect to an IXP, remember you’re essentially plugging into a massive switchboard designed for efficient, direct peer-to-peer conversations, not a traffic cop directing everyone’s data.

Written by: Matthew Kobayashi | IAA Peering Engineer

100Gbps Port coming soon so SA-IX

Order your 100Gbps port on SA-IX now!

Great news, Adelaide! After months in the pipeline, 100Gbps ports ane now available across all SA-IX Points of Presence, delivering the high capacity your users demand.

More capacity. More content.
Our latest upgrade will support the surge in traffic from major content sources like Steam, Netflix, Google, and more – keeping your users connected and content flowing smoothly.

There’s never been a better time to level up.

Order your port via the IAA Member Portal now:

Order now!

IAA invoices now delivered via the Member Portal

You might have noticed something a little different – and in some cases some quirks – with your invoices this month. From 1 May 2025, IAA invoices began being sent directly from the IAA Member Portal as part of our ongoing plans to make our Portal the single source of truth for services and more streamlined overall.

Unfortunately, we set a higher default for the invoice settings and in many cases additional account holders received copies of invoices. We’ve now corrected that, so only your billing contacts will receive them in future. We appreciate your patience as we get the new system up and running.

We’ve addressed the issues behind the scenes, and things should be back on track for next month’s billing cycle. To be clear, our bank details and payment methods remain the same as usual.

If you have any questions or need a copy of your invoice, feel free to get in touch at accounts@internet.asn.au.

Propose a PoP!

Got a location in mind for a new Point of Presence (PoP)? We’re proudly carrier and data centre neutral and always open to proposals from peers, suppliers, and data centres looking to improve connectivity for the benefit of all.

IAA does, however, have a minimum design and service standard for placement of a POP. It needs to have – at minimum – high grade redundant air conditioning, dual power feeds from diverse sources, secure racks in a secure facility, structured cabling facilities and multiple fibre providers via diverse paths to the site. Basically the site needs to be rated at Tier III or above, and we need evidence of member demand for its usage. This last point means that if Members ask for it, it can be so!

Help us expand our footprint to better serve your region and the wider network community. Propose a PoP and let’s explore the possibilities together.

Propose a PoP!

Tech News – Metrics, upgrades and hardware moves: a busy few months!

From rolling out a brand-new metrics system to tackling firmware bugs and optimising hardware across the network, the past few months have been anything but quiet. We’ve been refining how we collect and display network data, upgrading devices to keep things running smoothly, and consolidating hardware to future-proof our infrastructure. Here’s a look at what’s been happening behind the scenes.

New metrics system is a work in progress (but a big step forward!)

Our old metrics system served us well for years—but let’s be honest, it wasn’t keeping up with our evolving config generation. That led to issues like peer metrics failing to index the right ports, along with some security “quirks” we won’t elaborate on.

Former Technical Team Lead Nick Pratley spearheaded a search for a better way to collect network metrics, and the result is here – check it out! 

The new stack combines SNMP Exporter (with custom enrichment via our portal), Prometheus, Victoria Metrics, and Grafana. While the system is still a work in progress, we’d love your feedback, and do let us know if you spot anything off!

For those wondering, historical metrics from the old system aren’t disappearing; we just have a few final touches to bring them into the new platform.

Side note: If you saw some wildly unstable graphs on 31/01/25 (including a rather scandalous spike to 2.59Tb/s—sadly, not real… yet), that was due to a newly added SNMP Exporter module. The way Victoria Metrics handles Prometheus scrapes caused inconsistent timestamps, which threw off rate calculations. A quick tweak (honor_timestamps) fixed it, but not before a recalibration spike. Did we mention this is still a work in progress?

Firmware upgrades: when a cold spare saves the day!

Late 2024, an Equinix PE2 device ran into trouble—its management network interface reported a ‘Tx Unit Hang’, reset itself… and then never came back. Before we could fully diagnose it with the vendor, the device went completely unresponsive—no lights, no console, nothing. Our Perth-based PHP developer Kyle stepped up and swapped in our cold spare (cheers, Kyle!), bringing everything back to normal.

Then, just before Christmas, a device at NextDC P1 rebooted unexpectedly. Given our recent failure, this was not a welcome surprise. Turns out, excessive SNMP instances triggered a bug that crashed the device. We quickly dialed back SNMP pollers, and after confirming a software fix, we rolled out a firmware upgrade across the fleet.

Alongside these upgrades, we regenerated device configs to align them with the portal. For some Members, this means previously unshaped VLL services are now correctly shaped—so if you’ve been enjoying a free ride, sorry, that’s over. A postmortem was sent out for each outage, but if you notice loss on your VLL after a firmware update, you may need to adjust your VLL speed.

Hardware consolidations: NSW-IX gets future-ready

NSW-IX has been undergoing maintenance to consolidate hardware. With our modern Arista 400Gbps devices supporting more 100G LR1 Members, we’re able to retire some older 100Gbps switches, redeploy them where they’re needed most, and still maintain 100Gbps switches for 10Gbps access ports. Bottom line: NSW-IX is well-positioned for future capacity demands, with ample 10/100/400Gbps availability.

Looking ahead, this hardware consolidation will allow for rapid deployment at potential new sites like NextDC S2 and NextDC M2. But more immediately, it enables 100Gbps Member ports at SA-IX and VDC-PER01 at WA-IX—just in time for the upcoming QV1 farewell. Bigger ports? More content distribution via AS10084? Stay tuned!

100G LR1 enabled across all 100G capable sites

We’re excited to announce that the IAA Member Portal now allows you to order 100G LR1 optical transceivers across any 100Gbps enabled site. 100GBASE-LR1 is the successor to 100GBASE-LR4 as it uses a single laser rather than four lasers to achieve 100Gbps, reducing the complexity for less failures as well as enabling cost savings.

100G LR1 is now our default preferred optic type in the portal when you order a 100Gbps service with 100G LR4 still an option for now. In addition to the benefits of 100G LR for our Members, the biggest benefit to us is that we can use a 400G PLR4 optic to break a QSFP-DD switch port out into four 100Gbps ports for Members, significantly increasing the density we can get out of our modern switches to keep your packets as close as possible to your neighbours.

To assist Members with this change, we’re currently offering a complimentary FLEXOPTIX QSFP28 LR1 transceiver with new 100Gbps ports coded for your preferred vendor. To arrange this, please email support@internet.asn.au with your order ID, shipping address and vendor details of the device the transceiver will be used in.

NEXTDC A1 – we’re here and ready to peer!

We’re proud to announce our newest Point of Presence in NEXTDC’s A1 Adelaide data centre!

IAA is committed to meeting the growing needs of our Members and going where you want to see us. With that in mind, we’re thrilled to share news of our presence in the brand-new NEXTDC A1 Adelaide facility. We’re also pleased to be offering 100Gbps ports for the first time on SA-IX.

As the State’s first Tier IV-certified colocation facility, A1 offers unmatched fault tolerance, energy efficiency, and security. We secured the first of their 1,470-rack capacity and with 5MW of IT power capacity, A1 will provide the quality connectivity and resilient infrastructure that our Members rely on.

So, of course we’re here! Our Members wouldn’t have it any other way.

Order your ports via the IAA Member Portal now:

Order ports now

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