Packet Clearing House

Overview

Packet Clearing House (PCH) was formed in 1994 by Chris Alan and Mark Kent to provide efficient regional and local network interconnection alternatives for the West Coast of the United States. It has grown to become a leading proponent of neutral independent network interconnection and provider of route-servers at major exchange points worldwide.

PCH provides equipment, training, data, and operational support to organizations and individual researchers seeking to improve the quality, robustness, and Internet accessibility.

Major PCH projects include:

• Building and supporting nearly half of the world's approximately 700 Internet exchange points (IXPs), and maintaining the canonical index of Internet exchange points, with data going back to 1994;
• Operating the world's largest anycast Domain Name System (DNS) server platform, including two root nameservers, more than 400 top-level domains (TLDs) including the country-code domains of more than 130 countries, and the Quad9 recursive resolver;
• Operating the only FIPS 140-2 Level 4 global TLD DNSSEC key management and signing infrastructure, with facilities in Singapore, Zurich, and San Jose,
• Implementing network research data collection initiatives in more than 130 countries;
• Publishing original research and policy guidance in the areas of telecommunications regulation, including the 2011, 2016 and 2021 Interconnection Surveys, country reports such as those for Canada in 2012 and 2016 and Paraguay in 2012, and a survey of critical infrastructure experts for the GCSC; and
• Developing and presenting educational materials to foster a better understanding of Internet architectural principles and their policy implications among policymakers, technologists, and the general public.

Notable past projects include the INOC-DBA critical infrastructure protection hotline communications system, now operated by the Brazilian CERT.

PCH has more than 500 institutional donors, including the Soros Open Society Institute, which funded PCH in developing open source tools which help Internet service providers (ISPs) optimize their traffic routing, reduce costs and increase performance of Internet service delivered to the public; the United Nations Development Programme; Cisco Systems; NTT/Verio; Lumen; Equinix; the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, France, Singapore, Chile, Switzerland, and the United States; and hundreds of Internet service providers and individuals.

PCH works closely with the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) to offer courses on telecommunications regulation, Internet infrastructure construction and management, Domain Name System management, and Internet security coordination, three times a year in Washington, D.C. It also teaches in 80 to 100 on-location workshops a year throughout the world.

Locations

As of July 2025, PCH maintains staffed offices in Paris, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Kathmandu, Budapest, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, Washington and Portland and operates critical network infrastructure within 333 Internet exchange points.

Board of directors

PCH's board of directors consists of Steve Feldman (chairman), Bill Woodcock (secretary general), Sylvie LaPerriere, Gregory Akers, and Mark Tinka.

References

References

1. (17 June 2025). "Corporation Statement of Information". California Secretary of State.
2. (17 January 2022). "BREF Moez Chakchouk rejoint l'organisation Packet Clearing House". Tunisie Haut Debit.
3. "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2016 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
4. "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2015 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
5. "Federal Audit Clearinghouse, 2014 Report of Independent Auditor and Financial Statements with OMB Circular A-133 Audit Reports and Supplementary Information".
6. "Actor: Packet Clearing House". Global Forum on Cyber Expertise.
7. "Resources from technical community". OECD.
8. "Packet Clearing House".
9. (22 September 1994). "New multi-lateral peering group".
10. (13 November 2003). "RIPE 46 Internet Exchange Point Working Group Minutes". RIPE NCC.
11. "Packet Clearing House". PeeringDB.
12. "Shared ccTLD DNSSEC Signing Platform". ICANN.
13. (May 2, 2011). "Survey of Characteristics of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements". Packet Clearing House.
14. (November 21, 2016). "2016 Survey of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements". Packet Clearing House.
15. (December 17, 2021). "2021 Survey of Internet Carrier Interconnection Agreements". Packet Clearing House.
16. (September 12, 2012). "Toward Efficiencies in Canadian Internet Traffic Exchange". Packet Clearing House.
17. (8 November 2016). "2016 Study on Canadian Network Interconnection". Packet Clearing House.
18. (December 2012). "Peering in Paraguay: Analysis and Recommendations 2012". Packet Clearing House.
19. (November 20, 2017). "Report of the GCSC Critical Infrastructure Assessment Working Group". Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.
20. (23 August 2004). "ICT Toolsets Announces Winners of 2003 Grant Competition". Open Society Institute.
21. (26 June 2020). "USTTI Conducts Webinar with Packet Clearing House and AFRINIC". USTTI.
22. "Packet Clearing House Locations".
23. "Packet Clearing House locations".
24. "Packet Clearing House People".