SAIX Technical Requirements v1.

SAIX Technical Requirements

1. Purpose of the Document

This document is to provide SAIX technical requirements for member’s connectivity.

NOTE: Below is the basic requirements to be SAIX member, and once it is approved
by MCIT other prerequisite points can be shared based on the needs.

2. Terminologies and Definitions

Terminologies used herein but not otherwise defined shall have the same meanings:

SAIX: Refers to Saudi Arabian Internet Exchange, where many members can peer
together to interconnect their networks.

MCIT: Refers to Saudi Arabia Ministry of Communications and Information

Technology

Member: Refers to a beneficiary from the services provided by SAIX, it can be any one
has public ASN.

DSP: Refers to a licensed Data Service Provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
which is responsible for providing a service data circuits from one point to another
point, or data communications through a switched data network, including without
limitation: Broadband Services, Virtual Private (VPN) Services, Digital Leased Line
Services, Internet Protocol (IP) Services, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Services, Frame Relay Services, Wavelength Services International Data Gateway
Services, and International Data Transit Traffic Services.

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3. NOC Contact and Datacenter Location

SAIX NOC team actively monitor the SAIX infrastructure 24/7, Members can report
problems and inquiries to NOC via email (support@saix.sa) or phone (+ 966 9200 07537).

SAIX datacenter is located at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology main
premises in Riyadh. Map coordinates are (24°43'19.0"N 46°37'55.9"E).

4. Technical Requirement

4.1 Layer-1 Requirements

4.1.1 Members may install L3 device at SAIX datacenter or connect to SAIX

datacenter via any licensed DSP located at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

4.1.2 Interface media technology used are Ethernet only. Ethernet interfaces
attached to SAIX ports shall be explicitly configured with duplex, speed, and other
configuration settings and shall not be auto-sensing.

4.1.3 Physical Interfaces provided are 1G, 10G and 100G.

4.1.4 Members shall provide their own devices and SFPs.

4.1.5 SFPs and fiber provided are single mode or multimode (Defined in advance):
o Single mode connection if one of the peers are outside SAIX datacenter.
o Multimode mode connection if the two peers are inside SAIX datacenter.
o SAIX only provide connectivity that compatible with the following SFP’s types:

SFP Type

QSFP-100G-SR4-S
100G
QSFP-100G-LR4-S
SFP-10G-SR
10G
SFP-10G-LR
GLC-SX-MMD
1G
GLC-LH-SMD

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4.2 Layer-2 Requirements

4.2.1 Frames forwarded to SAIX ports shall have one of the following ether types:
o 0x0800 - IPv4
o 0x0806 - ARP
o 0x86dd - IPv6

4.2.2 Frames forwarded to an individual SAIX port shall have the same registered
source MAC address, if more than one address learned by port, SAIX team has the
authority to disable the port. If a member has the intention to change the registered
source MAC address, he shall submit change request to SAIX support team.

4.2.3 Frames forwarded to SAIX ports shall not be addressed to a multicast or

broadcast MAC destination address, except as follows:
o Broadcast ARP packets.
o Multicast IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) packets.
o If explicitly allowed for that port (e.g. multicast service).

4.2.4 ARP traffic shall not exceed 20 bps per port/VLAN.

4.2.5 Allowed Ethernet MTU size = 1600 bytes.

4.2.6 Member’s port default setting will be untagged access port and will be tagged
by SAIX based in VLAN requirements.

4.2.7 Members shall connect to SAIX using VLAN provided by SAIX.

4.2.8 Member’s interfaces connected to SAIX ports shall be a Layer-3 interface.

Therefore, PBDUs will not be allowed and SAIX has the right to disable the port for any
violations.

4.2.9 CDP, LLDP and VTP protocols are not permitted from SAIX side.

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4.3 Layer-3 Requirements

4.3.1 Member’s interfaces connected to SAIX ports shall have IP addresses and
subnet masks assigned by SAIX. In particular:
o IPV4 &IPV6 addresses are assigned by SAIX and members are not permitted
to change the IPs without SAIX approval.
o IPv6 addresses (link & global scope) shall be explicitly configured and not
auto-configured.
o IPv6 site-local addresses shall not be used.

4.3.2 IP packets addressed to SAIX peering LAN directed broadcast address shall not
be automatically forwarded to SAIX ports.

4.4 Route server information

4.4.1 SAIX operates BGP route server to facilitate the exchange of BGP
announcements between members, they need only to establish a BGP connection
with the route server in order to exchange BGP announcements with other
members.

4.4.2 (Optional) Two EBGP sessions at least will be established with two different
SAIX Route Servers (RS), to ensure service availability.

4.4.3 SAIX BGP session parameters:

IPv4 IPv6

Peering Network 45.95.12.0/23 2001:1497::/64

RS1 45.95.12.5 2001:1497::5

RS2 45.95.12.6 2001:1497::6

ASN 20759

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4.5 Routing

4.5.1 Routes exchange across the SAIX network shall be via BGPv4 and/or BGPv6
routing protocols.

4.5.2 Public AS numbers shall be used in BGP sessions across the SAIX network.

4.5.3 Bogons or Martians IP address as defined in (RFC1918, RFC5735 and RFC6598)

as well as default route will be dropped if the routes pass through SAIX route servers.

4.5.4 Updates with ASNs in the AS-PATH as defined by (RFC5398, RFC6793, RFC6996,
RFC7300 and RFC7607) will be dropped if it passes through SAIX route servers.

4.5.5 IP address space assigned to SAIX peering LAN shall not be advertised by
members to other networks without explicit permission of SAIX. All routes advertised
across the SAIX network shall point to the router advertising it unless a written
agreement has been made in advance by SAIX and members involved.

4.5.6 SAIX Route Servers will only accept updates that originated from member’s
ASNs or their behind customers based on the member’s AS-SET.

4.5.7 Maximum number of allowed routes will be defined and agreed in advance
based on the expected numbers for each member. The peering sessions will be
disabled once the maximum number are exceeded.

4.5.8 Due to route-server functionality, Members that will peers with SAIX Route
Servers have to disable the default behavior for BGP which deny incoming updates
received from EBGP peers that don’t list their AS number as the first segment in the
AS_PATH attribute (ex. CISCO IOS “no bgp enforce-first-as”).

4.5.9 Traffic shall be forwarded to members when permission has been given by the
receiving members by advertising a route across the SAIX network:
o Through the route servers.
o Through direct peering between members.

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4.5.10 SAIX only accept routes that passing specific conditions and the following flow
chart is the SAIX Route-Acceptance Policy.

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4.6 BGP Operational Communities

4.6.1 Member shall tag their routes on BGP announcement using SAIX BGP
Operational Communities, as per the following:
o Use community 20759:20759 for allowing the route servers to redistribute
member’s routes to all (other) peers.
o Use community 0:20759 to have the route servers not redistribute member’s
routes to any peer, the same behavior if prefix without any tagged
community.
o Use communities (20759:20759) (0:PEER-AS1) (0:PEER-AS2) for allowing the
route servers to redistribute member’s routes to all (other) peers
except PEER-AS1&2.
o Use communities (0:20759) (20759:PEER-AS1) (20759:PEER-AS2) for allowing
the route servers to redistribute member’s routes only to PEER-AS1&2.
o As per requirements new communities will be shared.

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