Prerequisites• Any ISP, Telecom Service Provider or Content Provider or any other entity.

Licensed, Registered or approved and authorised by the Government of Afghanistan can voluntarily become a NIXA peer.

• The Entity so approved and authorised by the NIXA Board to become NIXA member and peer traffic with other NIXA members, must have its own AS number and use BGP4+ for peering.

• To connect to NIXA, you have to become an approved Member of NIXA, whereas approval is granted by the NIXA Board, by sending the filled and duly signed forms and a copy of connection agreement with stamps on each page of the Agreement:

Already Ordinary Member and Want to Join at Other NIXA Node You just need to send the filled and duly signed NIXA Connection Form

Supported Connection TypesNIXA provides the following Ethernet options at nodes, subject to port availability:

• 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet (BaseT) & 1Gbit/s optical at Kabul NIXA

• 2Gbit/s, 5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s Connections can also be provided

General Principles• NIXA is carrier neutral.

• NIXA is the neutral meeting point of the ISPs, Telecom Service Providers, Content and other such entities approved to be NIXA members, with an Open Peering Policy allowing for multi-lateral peering and Bilateral peering. Members can connect to NIXA at Kabul or any other PoP of NIXA which may be set up in the future.

• NIXA is not an ISP or any other Service Provider and will not provide Internet connections or Transit services or any services which it’s Members otherwise provide.

• NIXA will not assign or provide for IP addresses, AS Numbers, etc. Peering ISP's will make their own arrangements with APNIC or any of the upstream providers or from Afghanistan Registry for Internet Names and Numbers.

• Members need to provide a 24x7 contact point to act upon urgent incidents/outages.

• Connectivity to the NIXA will be enabled through dedicated leased links (Microwave or Fiber, VSAT, etc.) of sufficient capacity based on which NIXA charges will be billed. Payments made for the leased link will be directly between the member and the Link provider and NIXA will not be a party to it, except for ensuring technical compatibility. Members shall provide their own backhaul (routers, convertors and cabling) to their networks.

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• Members must co-locate their router within the NIXA PoP. In future NIXA may consider allowing members to connect via direct, un-switched, Ethernet circuit from Members Home located router to the NIXA POP.

• Peering ISPs will not be allowed to have NIXA facilities as a default route. Further no ISP should use NIXA to carry traffic between its own routers.

• Members at any NIXA POP must announce all their routes.

• Members will ensure that their use of NIXA facilities is not detrimental to other members in any way and that all usage is compliant with the applicable internet standards of IETF.

• NIXA reserves the right to temporarily disconnect any member for security reasons or for preserving the stability of NIXA infrastructure.

• NIXA reserves the right to amend the guidelines stated above, within the framework of its Principles of Open Peering and Neutrality, with approval of the Board.

Basic Routing Policy• Members at the NIXA POP must announce all their routes. All Members

connecting to that NIXA node are entitled to receive these routes using a single BGP session with the NIXA router. This will guarantee the exchange of traffic within a NIXA node.

• In the event, that one NIXA member is already providing transit to another NIXA member, the exchange of Internet Traffic, may also happen using a separate private connection between the Members under their own Bilateral Peering Agreement/s.

• Members should announce only those routes that belong to their AS, i.e their own network, and their customer routes at the NIXA.

• The NIXA router will only exchange information but not carry any transit traffic.

• All NIXA members must ensure that they suitably and proactively upgrade capacity from time-to-time so that they do not end up dropping traffic that other peers are exchanging with them. A Member must Upgrade its port capacity or take additional port if 90% of its OUT or IN traffic in a month crosses 80% of its port capacity, for 3 months.

• The Routing Policy here applies to all types of Members, Content Providers and all other entities, accepted as members and connected to NIXA, for the purpose of peering with other member. For this they will have to have their own AS Numbers.

• Content hosted and exchanged by NIXA members should be in accordance with Afghanistan laws and regulations and should not be in violation of any terms and conditions laid down by the Government of Afghanistan

Initials NIXA Official Initials of Member