San Francisco Metropolitan Internet eXchange on SFMIX – San Francisco Metropolitan Internet eXchange

About SFMIX

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What is SFMIX?

The San Francisco Metropolitan Internet eXchange (SFMIX) is an Internet Exchange (IX) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An Internet Exchange is a shared switching fabric where networks come together to exchange traffic directly, rather than routing it through third-party transit providers. Each network connects a single cable to the exchange and can then reach every other connected network — no need to run a separate cable to each one. This replaces an expensive full mesh of point-to-point links with one efficient shared connection.

Connection Guide

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Want to connect to SFMIX? Here's how.

Overview

Review pricing and requirements below
Email tech-c@sfmix.org with your desired speed and location; we’ll confirm port availability

Tip: Use subject “New Connection Request – [Your Org Name]” and include your PeeringDB URL, desired speed, and preferred location. We typically respond within 1–2 business days.
Complete the Membership Application
SFMIX issues an LOA/CFA for you to order a cross-connect with the datacenter operator
SFMIX allocates your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

Contact

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Need to get in touch?

Documentation

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Non-Profit Filings

IRS Final Letter Tax Exemption 501(c)(12) (April 12, 2016)
Action by Incorporator (October 9, 2015)
IRS EIN Assignment (September 22, 2015)
KT-1 Registry of Charitable Trusts, Initial Registration (September 10, 2015)
K-2014 IRS, Application for Recognition Section 501(a) (September 10, 2015)
8718 IRS, Fee for Exempt Organization Determination Letter (September 10, 2015)
Bylaws (May 25, 2015)
Articles of Incorporation (April 18, 2015)

Tax Filings

Members Meetings

Presentations

Euro-IX: SFMIX L3 Services (May 5, 2026)
Midwest Peering Summit: SFMIX (July 15, 2025)
EuroIX: SFMIX use of DevOps (October 26, 2015)

Board Meetings

2022

November 19, 2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Architecture & Network Diagrams

2025 Architecture Diagram (March 25, 2025)
2023 Physical Layer Diagram
2020 Architecture Diagram (March 8, 2020)
2016 Architecture Diagram (March 30, 2016)
2015 Architecture Diagram (May 25, 2015)

Partners & Press

Locations

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Where to Connect

To connect, place a cross-connection order with the meet-me room (MMR) operator at your chosen facility. Cross-connect pricing is set by the MMR operator. SFMIX does not pay for participant-facing cross-connects.

All locations offer 10, 100, or 400Gbps fiber connectivity.

SMF only (10km 1310nm optics). No MMF or copper. Tunable or colored DWDM optics required in the Astound suite (passive MUX to SFMIX). BiDi available for 10G and 100G.

Looking Glass

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Looking Glass

All participants are required to peer with the SFMIX Looking Glass. It serves several purposes:

Validate your router configuration when first connecting
Test configuration changes against a low-impact peer with a self-service view of what the LG sees from you
Public visibility into what prefixes are present at the exchange
Quick reachability check for SFMIX operators

Quarantine VLAN

A parallel Looking Glass runs on the Quarantine VLAN with the same addresses as production. New participants can test their Ethernet, IP, and BGP configuration safely before joining the production peering LAN.

Participants

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Interested in connecting? Start here → or reach out if you have questions.

Member Exempt Participant Infrastructure

Route Servers

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SFMIX route servers enable multilateral peering through a single BGP session (ideally two for redundancy). The route server aggregates and redistributes participant routes, so you can start peering immediately without negotiating bilateral sessions.

Direct peering is still encouraged; route server use is optional. Configuration is generated with arouteserver.

For resilience, SFMIX runs two distinct stacks:

BIRD on Linux, with Routinator for RPKI
OpenBGPD on OpenBSD, with rpki-client for RPKI

Configuration summaries: BIRD/Linux · OpenBGPD/OpenBSD

Statistics

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Public Grafana Dashboards

SFMIX uses sFlow to sample exchange traffic metadata, including peer-to-peer volume metrics. Packet payloads are never captured or inspected. The stack is sFlow-RT, Prometheus, and Grafana.

The Team

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Board of Directors

Robert Carstens — Treasurer

Robert Carstens is a senior technology leader with 20 years of experience in information technology, networking, telecommunications, and infrastructure design. He began his career in desktop support, building a strong foundation in end-user systems and operational troubleshooting, and progressed into senior engineering and leadership roles through hands-on experience and a clear vision for the future.

He currently leads the architecture, deployment, and operation of service-provider networks at unWired Broadband, where his work spans core IP design, broadband delivery, and operational reliability. Known for combining deep technical expertise with practical, hands-on leadership, Robert specializes in building resilient, scalable systems and guiding teams from concept through execution. His experience includes greenfield network builds, data center design and operations, and large-scale compute and storage deployments.

San Francisco Metropolitan Internet eXchange on SFMIX – San Francisco Metropolitan Internet eXchange

About SFMIX

What is SFMIX?

Connection Guide

Overview

Contact

Email

Phone

Social

Documentation

Non-Profit Filings

Tax Filings

Members Meetings

Presentations

Board Meetings

2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Architecture & Network Diagrams

Partners & Press

Other Documentation

Locations

Where to Connect

Looking Glass

Looking Glass

Quarantine VLAN

Participants

Route Servers

Sponsors

Statistics

Public Grafana Dashboards

The Team

Board of Directors

Robert Carstens — Treasurer