Ebene is a region in Mauritius on the outskirts of Quatre Bornes. Several Internet Service Providers have offices in Ebene. It takes 14 minutes for 1.1 km walk between two locations in Ebene.
Would it be more than 1.1 km if the trip was over the internet? What if the origin and destination did not use the same Internet Service Provider for internet access? One way to find out is to run a traceroute between two locations in a region which is served by Mauritius Telecom and Enterprise Information Solutions Ltd.
1 197.225.22.1 1.682 ms 1.203 ms 1.672 ms
2 197.226.251.86 1.633 ms 1.487 ms 1.308 ms
3 196.20.254.173 4.749 ms 4.236 ms 4.765 ms
4 196.192.102.90 5.528 ms 5.455 ms 6.56 ms
5 105.21.0.21 118.663 ms 118.702 ms 119.462 ms
6 105.16.16.2 167.108 ms 105.16.17.1 166.382 ms 105.16.16.2 164.685 ms
7 105.16.9.202 167.501 ms 105.16.8.22 172.575 ms 171.802 ms
8 105.16.8.209 172.633 ms 105.16.10.209 167.268 ms 105.16.8.202 173.371 ms
9 105.16.29.8 192.448 ms 164.823 ms 164.817 ms
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 197.157.77.103 365.389 ms 351.754 ms 352.75 ms
13 197.157.79.207 365.485 ms 362.595 ms 370.295 ms
14 196.46.34.108 412.123 ms 417.735 ms 399.811 ms
15 196.46.40.1 69.933 ms 69.570 ms 69.777 ms
16 196.192.112.67 71.550 ms 70.606 ms 70.331 ms
17 196.192.112.83 71.218 ms 96.486 ms 432.183 ms
18 196.192.112.169 253.865 ms !C 395.932 ms !C 556.891 ms !C
The internet trip starts on the Mauritius Telecom network, goes through Kenya, then through South Africa before reaching the Enterprise Information Solutions Ltd network in Mauritius. The distance between Mauritius and Kenya is 3109 kilometers. The distance between Kenya and South Africa is roughly 2755 kilometers. The distance between South Africa and Mauritius is roughly 3065 kilometers. The length of the trip over the internet was roughly 8929 kilometers and it required international travel.
The local Internet Exchange Point is known as the Mauritius Internet Exchange Point (MIXP). According to the National Computer Board, the Mauritius Internet Exchange Point "is operational since December 2005 with four major ISPs in Mauritius peering on it". "The setting up of the NIXP is a very important milestone for the development of the Internet in Mauritius since local Internet traffic are now being contained in Mauritius and is not consuming International bandwidth which is an expensive resource". A workshop was organized in August 2014 by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in collaboration with the African Union Commission "to develop a pool of engineers who understand the technical aspects of local interconnections and are capable of maintaining the day-to-day operation of the Internet Exchange Point".
The MIXP lists Mauritius Telecom, EIS and MTML as "peering members". Statistics about daily aggregate traffic are available from its web site.
The traceroute output from the Mauritius Telecom network to the MTML network is as follows:
1 197.225.22.1 1.578 ms 1.393 ms 1.529 ms
2 197.226.251.86 1.252 ms 1.674 ms 1.388 ms
3 196.223.0.16 4.428 ms 3.491 ms 3.634 ms
4 172.16.10.202 4.296 ms 4.67 ms 3.531 ms
5 192.168.51.111 3.842 ms 3.112 ms 3.167 ms
6 41.223.76.1 3.56 ms 2.451 ms 2.382 ms
The exchange of data between the Mauritius Telecom network and the MTML network did not require international travel; it went through the local Internet Exchange Point. The exchange of data over the internet between two locations with a distance of 1.1 kilometre does not require international travel if the two Internet Service Providers are peering at the local Internet Exchange Point.
1. http://www.ncb.mu/English/EPowering%20Public/Pages/Services.aspx, "Services of GOC", National Computer Board
2. http://pmo.govmu.org/English/Documents/Cabinet%20Decisions%202014/CabinetDecision_22August2014.pdf, "Cabinet Decisions - 22 August 2014", Prime Minister's Office
3. http://www.mixp.org/#members, Peering Member List", Mauritius Internet Exchange Point, March 2016