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Packet Clearing House
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Packet Clearing House (PCH) is the international organization responsible for providing operational support and security to critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet exchange points and the core of the Domain Name System.[6][7][8] The organization also works in the areas of cybersecurity coordination, regulatory policy and Internet governance.
Key Information
Overview
[edit]Packet Clearing House (PCH) was formed in 1994 by Chris Alan and Mark Kent to provide efficient regional and local network interconnection alternatives for the West Coast of the United States.[9] It has grown to become a leading proponent of neutral independent network interconnection and provider of route-servers at major exchange points worldwide.
PCH provides equipment, training, data, and operational support to organizations and individual researchers seeking to improve the quality, robustness, and Internet accessibility.
Major PCH projects include:
- Building and supporting nearly half of the world's approximately 700 Internet exchange points (IXPs), and maintaining the canonical index of Internet exchange points, with data going back to 1994;[10]
- Operating the world's largest anycast Domain Name System (DNS) server platform, including two root nameservers, more than 400 top-level domains (TLDs) including the country-code domains of more than 130 countries, and the Quad9 recursive resolver;[11]
- Operating the only FIPS 140-2 Level 4 global TLD DNSSEC key management and signing infrastructure, with facilities in Singapore, Zurich, and San Jose,[12]
- Implementing network research data collection initiatives in more than 130 countries;
- Publishing original research and policy guidance in the areas of telecommunications regulation, including the 2011,[13] 2016[14] and 2021 [15] Interconnection Surveys, country reports such as those for Canada in 2012[16] and 2016[17] and Paraguay in 2012,[18] and a survey of critical infrastructure experts for the GCSC;[19] and
- Developing and presenting educational materials to foster a better understanding of Internet architectural principles and their policy implications among policymakers, technologists, and the general public.
Notable past projects include the INOC-DBA critical infrastructure protection hotline communications system, now operated by the Brazilian CERT.
PCH has more than 500 institutional donors, including the Soros Open Society Institute, which funded PCH in developing open source tools which help Internet service providers (ISPs) optimize their traffic routing, reduce costs and increase performance of Internet service delivered to the public;[20] the United Nations Development Programme; Cisco Systems; NTT/Verio; Lumen; Equinix; the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, France, Singapore, Chile, Switzerland, and the United States; and hundreds of Internet service providers and individuals.
PCH works closely with the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) to offer courses on telecommunications regulation, Internet infrastructure construction and management, Domain Name System management, and Internet security coordination, three times a year in Washington, D.C. It also teaches in 80 to 100 on-location workshops a year throughout the world.[21]
Locations
[edit]As of July 2025, PCH maintains staffed offices in Paris, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Kathmandu, Budapest, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, Washington and Portland[22] and operates critical network infrastructure within 333 Internet exchange points.[23]
Board of directors
[edit]PCH's board of directors consists of Steve Feldman (chairman), Bill Woodcock (secretary general), Sylvie LaPerriere, Gregory Akers, and Mark Tinka.[24]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Corporation Statement of Information". California Secretary of State. 17 June 2025. Archived from the original on 22 July 2025. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
- ^ "BREF Moez Chakchouk rejoint l'organisation Packet Clearing House". Tunisie Haut Debit. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
The former CEO of the Tunisian Post, Moez Chakchouk, has joined Packet Clearing House (PCH).
- ^ "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2016 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
- ^ "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2015 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
- ^ "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2014 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
- ^ "Actor: Packet Clearing House". Cybil: Cyber Capacity Knowledge Portal. Global Forum on Cyber Expertise. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ Porciuncula, Lorrayne. "Resources from technical community". Digital Economy Toolkit. OECD. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Packet Clearing House". Guidestar. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ Alan, Christopher (22 September 1994). "New multi-lateral peering group".
A group of Internet service providers have proposed the creation of a new multi-lateral, no-settlement IP peering organization. The working name for the group is Packet Clearing House (PCH). The meeting will be moderated by Christopher Alan, president of ElectriCiti Incorporated, and Mark Kent, Ph.D., Director of network operations of Internet Main Street.
- ^ Hughes, Mike (13 November 2003). "RIPE 46 Internet Exchange Point Working Group Minutes". RIPE NCC.
- ^ "Packet Clearing House". PeeringDB. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
AS 3856 handles research traffic for a global network of BGP and DNS looking glasses, and a variety of networking research projects hosted on behalf of academic and industry research labs. AS 42 handles production DNS traffic for several root servers, about 400 TLDs including 130 ccTLDs, and the Quad9 recursive resolver.
- ^ Lamb, Rick; Woodcock, Bill. "Shared ccTLD DNSSEC Signing Platform" (PDF). ICANN. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Adhikari, Vijay (May 2, 2011). "Survey of Characteristics of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Frigino, Marco (November 21, 2016). "2016 Survey of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Frigino, Marco (December 17, 2021). "2021 Survey of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Edelman, Benjamin (September 12, 2012). "Toward Efficiencies in Canadian Internet Traffic Exchange" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill (8 November 2016). "2016 Study on Canadian Network Interconnection" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Hernández, Gäel (December 2012). "Peering in Paraguay: Analysis and Recommendations 2012" (PDF). Packet Clearing House. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Woodcock, Bill; Rowland, Peter; Kolkman, Olaf (November 20, 2017). "Report of the GCSC Critical Infrastructure Assessment Working Group" (PDF). Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ "ICT Toolsets Announces Winners of 2003 Grant Competition". Open Society Institute. 23 August 2004. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
OSI is supporting Packet Clearing House in the development of open-source software tools which assist Internet service providers in optimizing the routing of their traffic, reducing the cost and increasing the performance of Internet service as delivered to the public. The 'PeerMaster' toolset functions as a matchmaking service for ISPs, allowing the individuals within each ISP who are responsible for negotiating network interconnections to find each other quickly and easily, and facilitating the interconnection transaction. The NetFlow analysis portion of the toolset goes one step further, analyzing ISPs' traffic flow and prioritizing the other ISPs, other countries, and other regions with which the ISP has the greatest degree of mutual traffic, allowing them to make better-informed network interconnection choices.
- ^ "USTTI Conducts Webinar with Packet Clearing House and AFRINIC". USTTI. 26 June 2020.
- ^ "Packet Clearing House Locations". Retrieved 2021-07-08.
- ^ "Packet Clearing House locations". Retrieved 22 July 2025.
- ^ "Packet Clearing House People". Retrieved 2024-04-27.
External links
[edit]- PCH.net - official website, including: Looking glass servers - White papers - Tutorials - Datasets
- Establishment of Nepal Internet Exchange: Interim Report
- Bill Woodcock: On an Internet Odyssey