Foundation Projects

Maldives faces challenges in optimizing Internet traffic because service providers are not fully interconnected and some services that are hosted locally are not fully delivered locally. In addition, smaller ISPs are left out of content delivery networks (CDNs).

This funding supported the establishment of the Maldives Internet Exchange (MVIX). MVIX is running an Internet exchange point (IXP) to help resolve these issues, basing more traffic locally and making Internet operations in Maldives more efficient.

The funding:

As part of the IXP deployment, an independent location was rented for the datacenter, where two racks were placed. One of the racks was allocated for servers and switches while the second rack was allocated for the transmission fiber network ODF.

This activity did not utilize any funds from this grant, but in order to deploy the data center, several pieces of equipment were purchased, including a switch and a server. A total of USD 32,868.48 was spent on the purchase, of which USD 18,300 was expensed from the Foundation Community Assistance (FCA) funding. A free workshop conducted by APNIC was also carried out to set up the IXP. 

Am Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and raised flooring with backup power grid were installed at this location; but this activity did not use any funds from the FCA funding. A fiber cable layer 2 network was also installed in Malé, the capital city of Maldives.

The cost of this installation was USD 3,880, of which USD 1,700 was expensed from the grant funding.