On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Drew Weaver <[email protected]> wrote: > I've asked several times about this in the past; although I learned quickly > to stop asking. > > It seems that the consensus has generally been that the best way to handle > traffic engineering in networks where you have multiple full-feed up-streams > is to do it manually (i.e. set preference for your top N AS/prefix > destinations) or don't do it at all (let BGP figure it out..?). >
seems the feeling is that if you have multiple full feeds and need to loadshare, you really don't want (in most cases) ispa=500mbps + ispb=500mbps. you really want destinationA to be reached across the 'best path' (best ... in some form, distance? packetdrop%? jitter? cost?) you'll most likely have to tweak things in order to achieve what you want since only distance is really used in the stock bgp calculation (distance by as-hops, presuming you don't listen to closely to med from your providers) > Suggesting that a "route optimization system" has any value generally makes > people cranky. > ha! :) -chris > Thanks, > -Drew > > -----Original Message----- > From: Holmes,David A [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 2:07 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Multiple ISP Load Balancing > > From time to time some have posted questions asking if BGP load balancers > such as the old Routescience Pathcontrol device are still around, and if not > what have others found to replace that function. I have used the Routescience > device with much success 10 years ago when it first came on the market, but > since then a full BGP feed has become much larger, Routescience has been > bought by Avaya, then discontinued, and other competitors such as Sockeye, > Netvmg have been acquired by other companies. > > Doing some research on how load balancing can be accomplished in 2011, I have > come across Cisco's performance routing feature, and features from load > balancing companies such as F5's Link Controller. I have always found BGP to > be easy to work with, and an elegant, simple solution to load balancing using > a route-reflector configuration in which one BGP client (Routescience > Pathcontrol in my background) learns the best route to destination networks, > and then announces that best route to BGP border routers using common and > widely understood BGP concepts such as communities and local pref, and found > this to lead to a deterministic Internet routing architecture. This required > a knowledge only of IETF standards (common BGP concepts and configurations), > required no specialized scripting, or any other knowledge lying outside IETF > boundaries, and it seemed reasonable to expect that network engineers should > eagerly and enthusiastically want to master this technology, just as any > other technology must be mastered to run high availability networks. > > So I am wondering if anyone has experience with implementing load balancing > across multiple ISP links in 2011, and if there have been any comparisons > between IETF standards-based methods using BGP, and other proprietary methods > which may use a particular vendor's approach to solving the same problem, but > involves some complexity with more variables to be plugged in to the > architecture. > > David > > > > ________________________________ > This communication, together with any attachments or embedded links, is for > the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is > confidential or legally protected. If you are not the intended recipient, you > are hereby notified that any review, disclosure, copying, dissemination, > distribution or use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have > received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by > return e-mail message and delete the original and all copies of the > communication, along with any attachments or embedded links, from your system. >
