Re: Cisco vs Adtran vs Juniper

2008-07-20 Thread Doug McIntyre
On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 11:55:44AM -0400, Paul Stewart wrote:
> Still wondering if anyone knows how the Cisco lifetime warranty really
> works...?

You call up TAC, tell them you have a problem with your catalyst. 

Since the huge gray-market problem with cisco gear, they'll probably
want proof that you are original owner, so you'll most likely need to
dig up invoices showing buying from an authorized cisco dealer/distributer.

If they are happy with your documentation, you get support. If its a
security problem with the software version, they'll give you a link to
download a fixed version. If you have bad hardware, you'll get it
cross-shipped next-business-day.

You still need Smartnet to get any version upgrade, or faster shipping
than NBD.




Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Joel Jaeggli

Paul Francis wrote:

So, if I get you right, you are saying that edge routers have fewer CPU
requirements, and so ISPs can get away with software routers and don't care
about FIB. 


"ISP's that can get away with software routers" Also multihomed edge 
networks, the costs associated with multihoming aren't evenly 
distributed. The entities most likely to get squeezed are in the middle 
of the echosystem.



At the same time, folks in the middle are saying that in any
event they need to buy high-end routers, and so can afford to buy enough
hardware FIB so they also don't care (much) about FIB growth.


They care, but you weren't buying 2 million entry cam routers a year ago 
to deal with the growth of the DFZ. They bought them because they needed 
or would need a million or more internal routes fairly shortly, which 
says a lot about the complexity of a large isp. Assuming the dfz growth 
continues to fit the curve it's pretty easy to figure out when you need 
enough fib to support 500k dfz entries just as it was when we did the 
fib bof at nanog 39...


http://www.cidr-report.org/cgi-bin/plota?file=%2Fvar%2Fdata%2Fbgp%2Fas2.0%2Fbgp-active.txt&descr=Active+BGP+entries+%28FIB%29&ylabel=Active+BGP+entries+%28FIB%29&range=Year&StartDate=&EndDate=&yrange=Auto&ymin=&ymax=&Width=1&Height=1&with=Step&color=auto&logscale=linear

That's not to say that fib compression is undesirable, that approach has 
real benefits extending the useful life of a given platform, but there's 
very little about the current situation that is unexpected, or intractable.



Are there any folks for whom this statement isn't working?

PF


-Original Message-
From: Joel Jaeggli [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 1:02 PM
To: Adrian Chadd
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

Adrian Chadd wrote:

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:


Not saying that they couldn't benefit from it, however on one hand

we

have a device with a 36Mbit cam on the other, one with 2GB of ram,

which

one fills up first?

Well, the actual data point you should look at is "160k odd FIB from

a couple

years ago can fit in under 2 megabytes of memory."

The random fetch time for dynamic RAM is pretty shocking compared to

L2

cache access time, and you probably want to arrange your FIB to play

well with

your cache.

Its nice that the higher end CPUs have megabytes and megabytes of L2

cache

but placing a high-end Xeon on each of your interface processors is

probably

asking a lot. So there's still room for optimising for sensibly-

specced

hardware.

If you're putting it on a line card it's probably more like a RAZA XLR,
more memory bandwith and less cpu relative to the say the intel arch
approach.

That said I think you're headed to high end again. It has been
routinetly posited that fib growth hurts the people on the edge more
than in the center. I don't buy that for the reason outlined in my
original response. If my pps requirements are moderate my software
router can carry a fib of effectively arbitrary size at a lower cost
than carrying the same fib in cam.


Of course, -my- applied CPU-cache clue comes from the act of parsing

HTTP requests/

replies, not from building FIBs. I'm just going off the papers I've

read on the

subject. :)



Adrian








RE: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Paul Francis
So, if I get you right, you are saying that edge routers have fewer CPU
requirements, and so ISPs can get away with software routers and don't care
about FIB.  At the same time, folks in the middle are saying that in any
event they need to buy high-end routers, and so can afford to buy enough
hardware FIB so they also don't care (much) about FIB growth.

Are there any folks for whom this statement isn't working?

PF

> -Original Message-
> From: Joel Jaeggli [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 1:02 PM
> To: Adrian Chadd
> Cc: nanog@nanog.org
> Subject: Re: virtual aggregation in IETF
> 
> Adrian Chadd wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> >
> >> Not saying that they couldn't benefit from it, however on one hand
> we
> >> have a device with a 36Mbit cam on the other, one with 2GB of ram,
> which
> >> one fills up first?
> >
> > Well, the actual data point you should look at is "160k odd FIB from
> a couple
> > years ago can fit in under 2 megabytes of memory."
> >
> > The random fetch time for dynamic RAM is pretty shocking compared to
> L2
> > cache access time, and you probably want to arrange your FIB to play
> well with
> > your cache.
> >
> > Its nice that the higher end CPUs have megabytes and megabytes of L2
> cache
> > but placing a high-end Xeon on each of your interface processors is
> probably
> > asking a lot. So there's still room for optimising for sensibly-
> specced
> > hardware.
> 
> If you're putting it on a line card it's probably more like a RAZA XLR,
> more memory bandwith and less cpu relative to the say the intel arch
> approach.
> 
> That said I think you're headed to high end again. It has been
> routinetly posited that fib growth hurts the people on the edge more
> than in the center. I don't buy that for the reason outlined in my
> original response. If my pps requirements are moderate my software
> router can carry a fib of effectively arbitrary size at a lower cost
> than carrying the same fib in cam.
> 
> > Of course, -my- applied CPU-cache clue comes from the act of parsing
> HTTP requests/
> > replies, not from building FIBs. I'm just going off the papers I've
> read on the
> > subject. :)
> >
> >
> >
> > Adrian
> >
> 




Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Joel Jaeggli

Adrian Chadd wrote:

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

Not saying that they couldn't benefit from it, however on one hand we 
have a device with a 36Mbit cam on the other, one with 2GB of ram, which 
one fills up first?


Well, the actual data point you should look at is "160k odd FIB from a couple
years ago can fit in under 2 megabytes of memory."

The random fetch time for dynamic RAM is pretty shocking compared to L2
cache access time, and you probably want to arrange your FIB to play well with
your cache.

Its nice that the higher end CPUs have megabytes and megabytes of L2 cache
but placing a high-end Xeon on each of your interface processors is probably
asking a lot. So there's still room for optimising for sensibly-specced
hardware.


If you're putting it on a line card it's probably more like a RAZA XLR, 
more memory bandwith and less cpu relative to the say the intel arch 
approach.


That said I think you're headed to high end again. It has been 
routinetly posited that fib growth hurts the people on the edge more 
than in the center. I don't buy that for the reason outlined in my 
original response. If my pps requirements are moderate my software 
router can carry a fib of effectively arbitrary size at a lower cost 
than carrying the same fib in cam.



Of course, -my- applied CPU-cache clue comes from the act of parsing HTTP 
requests/
replies, not from building FIBs. I'm just going off the papers I've read on the
subject. :)



Adrian






Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Adrian Chadd
On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

> Not saying that they couldn't benefit from it, however on one hand we 
> have a device with a 36Mbit cam on the other, one with 2GB of ram, which 
> one fills up first?

Well, the actual data point you should look at is "160k odd FIB from a couple
years ago can fit in under 2 megabytes of memory."

The random fetch time for dynamic RAM is pretty shocking compared to L2
cache access time, and you probably want to arrange your FIB to play well with
your cache.

Its nice that the higher end CPUs have megabytes and megabytes of L2 cache
but placing a high-end Xeon on each of your interface processors is probably
asking a lot. So there's still room for optimising for sensibly-specced
hardware.

Of course, -my- applied CPU-cache clue comes from the act of parsing HTTP 
requests/
replies, not from building FIBs. I'm just going off the papers I've read on the
subject. :)



Adrian




Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Joel Jaeggli

Adrian Chadd wrote:

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

Software switched routers have little pressure on fib limitions. For a 
certain class of application the software switched edge router is in a 
much better position to accommodate fib growth than a device with a 
fixed sized cam.


I dunno about that; there's some papers floating about which look at
trie type FIB representations which note significant savings in compressing
FIB to unique entry set. Less memory, less comparsions, less nodes, etc.
Rather interesting stuff.


Not saying that they couldn't benefit from it, however on one hand we 
have a device with a 36Mbit cam on the other, one with 2GB of ram, which 
one fills up first?



Try http://www.academypublisher.com/jnw/vol02/no03/jnw02031827.pdf for
fun.



Adrian






Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Adrian Chadd
On Sun, Jul 20, 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

> Software switched routers have little pressure on fib limitions. For a 
> certain class of application the software switched edge router is in a 
> much better position to accommodate fib growth than a device with a 
> fixed sized cam.

I dunno about that; there's some papers floating about which look at
trie type FIB representations which note significant savings in compressing
FIB to unique entry set. Less memory, less comparsions, less nodes, etc.
Rather interesting stuff.

Try http://www.academypublisher.com/jnw/vol02/no03/jnw02031827.pdf for
fun.



Adrian




Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Joel Jaeggli

Paul Francis wrote:

Gang,

I have submitted an internet-draft to the IDR group on virtual aggregation
(VA) (http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-francis-idr-intra-va-00.txt).
This draft suggests a few changes to routers that allow operators to control
the size of their FIBs, shrinking them by 5x or 10x quite easily.  This would
extend the lifetime of routers that are constrained by FIB size.

There has been a lively discussion of this on the IDR mailing list, including
a suggestion that FIB reduction is more important for lower tier ISPs (tier
2, tier 3...) than for tier 1 ISPs.  Unfortunately I don't think that people
from smaller ISPs pay much attention to the IDR mailing list, so they are not
being represented in this discussion.


Software switched routers have little pressure on fib limitions. For a 
certain class of application the software switched edge router is in a 
much better position to accommodate fib growth than a device with a 
fixed sized cam.


If you're in the business of shopping for sup-2s on ebay you'll probably 
 see significant benefits in fib reduction.



So I'm looking for input from folks who think that FIB reduction helps them,
so as to better understand their requirements.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

PF







RE: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Paul Francis
Certainly in principle it can, though that is not in the current proposal.
The basic idea is to suppress installing routes into the FIB when there is a
"virtual aggregate" that you can tunnel to instead.

I remember we discussed this in San Jose NANOG, but I forget the details.
Can you remind me?

PF


> -Original Message-
> From: Alain Durand [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 9:13 AM
> To: Paul Francis; nanog@nanog.org
> Subject: Re: virtual aggregation in IETF
> 
> Paul,
> 
> Can this proposal be applied to IS-IS (or other IGP) as well as BGP?
> 
>- Alain.
> 
> 
> On 7/20/08 8:46 AM, "Paul Francis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > Gang,
> >
> > I have submitted an internet-draft to the IDR group on virtual
> aggregation
> > (VA) (http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-francis-idr-intra-va-
> 00.txt).
> > This draft suggests a few changes to routers that allow operators to
> control
> > the size of their FIBs, shrinking them by 5x or 10x quite easily.
> This would
> > extend the lifetime of routers that are constrained by FIB size.
> >
> > There has been a lively discussion of this on the IDR mailing list,
> including
> > a suggestion that FIB reduction is more important for lower tier ISPs
> (tier
> > 2, tier 3...) than for tier 1 ISPs.  Unfortunately I don't think that
> people
> > from smaller ISPs pay much attention to the IDR mailing list, so they
> are not
> > being represented in this discussion.
> >
> > So I'm looking for input from folks who think that FIB reduction
> helps them,
> > so as to better understand their requirements.
> >
> > Any help is much appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > PF
> >
> >
> >
> 




Re: virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Alain Durand
Paul,

Can this proposal be applied to IS-IS (or other IGP) as well as BGP?

   - Alain.


On 7/20/08 8:46 AM, "Paul Francis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Gang,
> 
> I have submitted an internet-draft to the IDR group on virtual aggregation
> (VA) (http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-francis-idr-intra-va-00.txt).
> This draft suggests a few changes to routers that allow operators to control
> the size of their FIBs, shrinking them by 5x or 10x quite easily.  This would
> extend the lifetime of routers that are constrained by FIB size.
> 
> There has been a lively discussion of this on the IDR mailing list, including
> a suggestion that FIB reduction is more important for lower tier ISPs (tier
> 2, tier 3...) than for tier 1 ISPs.  Unfortunately I don't think that people
> from smaller ISPs pay much attention to the IDR mailing list, so they are not
> being represented in this discussion.
> 
> So I'm looking for input from folks who think that FIB reduction helps them,
> so as to better understand their requirements.
> 
> Any help is much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> PF
> 
> 
> 





virtual aggregation in IETF

2008-07-20 Thread Paul Francis
Gang,

I have submitted an internet-draft to the IDR group on virtual aggregation
(VA) (http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-francis-idr-intra-va-00.txt).
This draft suggests a few changes to routers that allow operators to control
the size of their FIBs, shrinking them by 5x or 10x quite easily.  This would
extend the lifetime of routers that are constrained by FIB size.

There has been a lively discussion of this on the IDR mailing list, including
a suggestion that FIB reduction is more important for lower tier ISPs (tier
2, tier 3...) than for tier 1 ISPs.  Unfortunately I don't think that people
from smaller ISPs pay much attention to the IDR mailing list, so they are not
being represented in this discussion.

So I'm looking for input from folks who think that FIB reduction helps them,
so as to better understand their requirements.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

PF