Providing a professional level of Quality of Service (QoS) to all its members has always been a core part of France-IX’s DNA.
Achieving the highest possible quality of service by managing parameters such as latency, jitter, frame loss, and service availability within the France-IX infrastructure is the key to a successful peering experience. Adding objectives around service delivery, changes, and migration further paves the way for a successful member experience.

This QoS section outlines the service levels for all services provided by France-IX, in accordance with the terms of its peering services agreement.
It brings together all the resources, processes, and objectives governing these services, aiming to ensure optimal quality of service for all its members.

1. Définitions

• "Business Days" refer to working days from Monday to Friday, excluding official public holidays in France.
• "Business Hours" (BH) refer to all working hours on a business day, from Monday to Friday, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. CET.
• Non-Business Hours (NBH) refer to the hours outside of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on business days, i.e., from 12 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. CET from Monday to Friday, and from 12 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.
• "Scheduled Work" refers to maintenance, configuration, migration, or modification of any peering service provided by France-IX.
• Emergency Maintenance refers to exceptional maintenance that must be performed urgently on the France-IX platform and may impact one or more clients.
• Major Technical Issue refers to an exceptional technical emergency that results in France-IX being unable to provide services to some or all of its clients under standard operational conditions, or that could impact client security. A major technical issue may require the immediate, partial, or full isolation of the client's connection, or even the affected Point of Presence (PoP).

2. Livraison du service

2.1 Initial Connection
Once the client has received their cross-connect within the data center where France-IX has a point of presence (PoP), the France-IX technical team will proceed with connecting the client to their equipment within five (5) business days for 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, and 100 Gbps ports. However, the client may specify a desired date for the service delivery, and France-IX will endeavor to meet this request.

The client's port is initially placed in a quarantine VLAN.
Optical level checks and operational verifications are performed to ensure that there are no errors or faults on the port, to guarantee that no unauthorized protocols are enabled, and to prevent any unwanted traffic from being propagated. These technical specifications are detailed on the France-IX website: Network Technical Specifications.

Once the checks are completed, the port is placed in the production VLAN; the end date of the tests is then considered the production start date.

2.2 Engineering Rules

When a client is connected to different ports within the same PoP, France-IX by default distributes the connection across multiple service cards to minimize the impact of maintenance or a card failure. Additionally, when the data center has multiple Meet-Me-Rooms (MMR), France-IX installs cross-connects in these MMRs, allowing the client to select redundant paths for connecting their ports. If the client requires additional resilience, a specific architecture must be discussed with the France-IX technical team.

Each France-IX device is powered by redundant power sources and equipped with redundant switching fabrics and supervision cards across all PoPs. In some core network PoPs, the racks themselves are duplicated to provide additional resilience. All peripheral PoPs are interconnected with at least two (2) other core PoPs via optical links that follow completely separate paths, minimizing the impact of maintenance or a fiber optic failure.

3. Service change and migration

3.1 Non-Contractual Change
In cases where a simple modification to the port configuration is required, without any contractual impact, such as changing the MAC address associated with the port, the change is carried out 24/7 by the France-IX Network Operations Centre (NOC) within four (4) hours (during both Business Hours and Non-Business Hours).

3.2 Contractual Change

• In cases where a connection modification involves a contractual change, such as adding a new VLAN for private peering or purchasing a service from the Marketplace, the time to implement the changes, once the contract is updated and signed, is three (3) business days.
• For contractual bandwidth upgrades, if the new bandwidth can be activated on the existing physical port, the upgrade will be activated within one (1) business day upon receipt of the signed contract amendment. If a new port is required, the timelines are as specified in section "2.1 Initial Connection" of this document.
• For contractual bandwidth downgrades, according to France-IX’s general terms of the connection agreement, there is a 2-month notice period required from the client via written notification. During this period, a contract amendment must be signed. The new bandwidth is then activated either through the existing port or via a different port if necessary.
• For changes such as a migration within a PoP or to a new PoP, a new port is required, and the timelines are as specified in section "2.1 Initial Connection" of this document.

4. Service availability

4.1 Scheduled Work

All scheduled maintenance operations and planned works by France-IX are announced at least ten (10) business days in advance, unless a major technical issue or severe security problem requires immediate maintenance (see section "4.3 Service Interruption (detected by France-IX)").
In all cases, France-IX will use all available means to minimize the potential impact of these maintenance operations. Such operations are excluded from any service availability calculations. All maintenance operations are announced by our NOC or the France-IX technical team.
All maintenance tickets include the following information:

Maintenance operations impacting client ports are always carried out during non-business hours.

4.2 Service Interruption (Detected by the Client)

If an issue is detected or suspected by the client, either with their connection or the France-IX infrastructure, the incident must be reported to the France-IX NOC by opening a ticket.
The France-IX NOC is available 24/7, either by email at noc_at_franceix.net (which will automatically generate a ticket) or through the client portal provided by France-IX (https://support.franceix.net/).

4.3 Service Interruption (Detected by France-IX)

Any outage, incident, or potential degradation of service quality automatically triggers an incident ticket to inform France-IX clients.
In the event of a major technical issue or serious security problem, France-IX reserves the right to suspend services at any time to protect its clients, with notice given as soon as possible.
When a problem occurs, the France-IX NOC ensures that an information ticket is opened within one (1) hour of detection (during both Business and Non-Business Hours). Updates are sent to France-IX clients whenever useful information can be provided, until the issue is resolved.
All incident tickets contain the following information:

• Date and time the incident started;
• Estimated date and time for resolution;
• Impact;
• Summary and total duration when the ticket is closed.
  

4.4 Escalation

Escalation procedures are automatically initiated by the France-IX NOC, depending on the severity and duration of the incident.

Quality of service measurement

5.1 Service Availability

Service availability refers to the total period of uptime during a calendar year for the infrastructure in a given city (across all client ports). France-IX's objective is to offer its clients an availability rate of at least 99.995% per year (non-contractual). France-IX operates multiple Internet Exchange Points located in Lille, Lyon, Paris, Marseille, and Toulouse. The availability of each exchange point is calculated separately, as they are independent and not interconnected.

The following events are excluded from the availability calculation:

• Any force majeure event as described in the France-IX general terms of the connection agreement;
• Any modification or alteration of the service made at the client's request;
• Any interruption resulting from defects or failures in the client's equipment, their connection to the data center, or any infrastructure provided or operated by the client or on their behalf;
• Incomplete or inaccurate information provided by the client to France-IX;
• Any delay or failure by the client to meet obligations defined by the France-IX connection agreement;
• Scheduled maintenance and planned works by France-IX.

The service is considered unavailable when the client is unable to reach at least 10% of France-IX clients for a period exceeding 10 consecutive seconds, or when they are unable to send or receive traffic through the France-IX infrastructure.

Each month, availability is measured to consolidate the annual availability. Total time is measured in minutes.

Availability = (Total time ∑ - interruptions (maintenance operations + outages)) x 100 / (Total time ∑ - interruptions (maintenance operations))

Availability is measured based on tickets generated by the France-IX NOC and monitoring probes. It is displayed in real-time and is accessible to the client at any time via the dedicated France-IX portal.

5.2 RTD, Jitter, and Frame Loss

France-IX aims to deliver the following target results to its clients (non-contractual):

• Frame loss: <0.05% on average per hour, over a 24-hour period;
• RTD (Round-Trip Delay): <1.5 milliseconds on average per hour, over a 24-hour period;
• Jitter: <100 microseconds on average per hour, over a 24-hour period.

For RTD, the indicated value corresponds to the maximum delay between two PoPs, considering that they may be up to 80 km apart. France-IX has deployed monitoring probes across all its PoPs. RTD, jitter, and frame loss are continuously measured and monitored.

The measurements are published on the dedicated France-IX portal, allowing clients to check the overall service quality at any time. These measurements are also used by the France-IX technical team and NOC to proactively detect any potential issues before they impact the service.

In addition to these key performance indicators, France-IX also monitors the traffic level of each client connection, as well as the optical levels of each port, to prevent any degradation in service quality due to congestion on a client port or errors detected on the optical layer caused by a faulty fiber.

Finally, the backbone links are overprovisioned to avoid any risk of congestion. The France-IX technical team constantly monitors these links and increases capacity if the load exceeds 40%.

Client tools

6.1 Client Portal
France-IX provides access to an online client portal: tools.franceix.net.
This portal includes weathermaps, traffic volume information by PoP, a BGP report, flow statistics, a looking-glass tool, and direct access to the France-IX NOC. A username and password are sent to the peering email address once the service is activated.
Please note that France-IX reserves the right to modify the methods, frequency, systems, and measurement tools on its infrastructure at any time, without prior notice, in order to continually adapt to technological advancements, regulatory frameworks, and business requirements.

6.2 Technical Reports
Each quarter, the France-IX technical team publishes a report summarizing all operations carried out within the France-IX infrastructure, whether or not they impact service availability, in order to maintain maximum transparency.
These reports also include information on outages or incidents, if applicable.