[100246] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Comcast blocking p2p uploads
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Spaeth)
Fri Oct 19 19:42:32 2007
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:40:46 -0500
From: Eric Spaeth <eric@spaethco.com>
Reply-To: eric@spaethco.com
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <4719354F.8080206@labrats.us>
X-SpaethCo-MailScanner-From: eric@spaethco.com
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
Sean Figgins wrote:
> Eric Spaeth wrote:
>
> > With rate-shaping they would need to have the P2P identification widget
> > in-line with the data path to be able to classify and mark traffic so
> > that it can be queued/throttled appropriately.
>
> The Sandvine, in particular, is designed to be placed in-line like
> this. It does, however, deploy a technology to shunt the traffic
> through the device in the event that the server craters. Many network
> devices do this now.
I have previous experience with Sitara QoS devices that sported that
same feature. The problem was that the relay would only shut if the box
lost power or if it received a software command to disengage. We had
numerous problems where the packet processing engine would become
overwhelmed and lock up; the relay stayed engaged because the box
retained power and the software driver was rendered useless once the
whole OS locked up.
Maybe it's just me, but when a vendor is concerned enough about their
box failing that they work out these elaborate bypass options it doesn't
inspire a lot of confidence in the stability of the product. IMHO,
wedging a 99.5% available piece of hardware between your 99.99+%
available network hardware is just bad karma.
-Eric
