MAE-West

{{Short description|Internet exchange point serving California, US}}

{{other uses|Mae West (disambiguation)}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}

MAE-West was an Internet exchange point located on the west coast of the United States in Silicon Valley, in the south San Francisco Bay Area in California. It was established in November, 1994.{{cite web |last1=Hardie |first1=John |title=MAE-West |url=http://media.wix.com/ugd/c477f2_63c0b2e566b0456c9b5899430b3608cf.pdf |publisher=Metropolitan Fiber Systems |date=15 November 1994}} Its name officially stands for "Metropolitan Area Exchange, West", although it was a humorous reference to the name of the actress Mae West and to the original MAE in the Washington DC metro area, which was thereafter known as "MAE-East."

The exchange was a dual Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) ring, bridged between two locations, one in downtown San Jose, operated by Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) and catering principally to smaller networks, and the second operated by NASA at Moffett Field, {{convert|12|mi|km}} to the northwest, and catering principally to larger networks, since it had annual terms (rather than the monthly terms and service level agreement available at the MFS location) and more restrictive access policies. The MFS side was constructed by Steven Feldman, and the NASA side by Bobby Cates and Lance Tatman.{{cite web |last1=Garfinkel |first1=Simson |title=Where Streams Converge |url=https://simson.net/clips/1996/96.HW.MAE_West.pdf |date=11 September 1996}}

Its San Jose facility was housed in the Market Post Tower.{{cite news | url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/19/1029114069316.html| title= Southern Cross Cable Network commissions third US access point | newspaper=The Age | date=August 19, 2002}} Built in 1985, Market Post Tower, also known as the Gold Building, is a 15-story building located at 55 South Market at the corner Post Street in downtown San Jose, California.

According to its website, "MAE West is interconnected with the Ames Internet Exchange, operated by NASA at the Ames Research Center. This connection is currently two OC3c circuits directly between the FDDI switches at each end."{{cite web

|title=MAE West

|year=1998

|website=MAE.net

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990202082611/http://www.mae.net/west.html

|archive-date=February 2, 1999

|url=http://www.mae.net/west.html

|access-date=February 1, 2017

|url-status=dead

}}

In the 1990s, MAE-West was operated by MCI Worldcom and was the second-busiest exchange point on the internet, handling, by some estimates, as much as 40% of the nation's Internet traffic.{{Citation

| last =Learmonth

| first =Michael

| title = Hubba Hub

| newspaper = Metro Silicon Valley

| date = April 22, 1999

| url =http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/04.22.99/slices-9916.html

| access-date =February 1, 2017 }}