[46774] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: packet reordering at exchange points
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Sprunk)
Wed Apr 10 13:04:11 2002
Message-ID: <01e201c1e0b1$7db52020$e1876540@amer.cisco.com>
From: "Stephen Sprunk" <ssprunk@cisco.com>
To: "Peter Galbavy" <peter.galbavy@knowtion.net>,
"Richard A Steenbergen" <ras@e-gerbil.net>,
"E.B. Dreger" <eddy+public+spam@noc.everquick.net>
Cc: "Paul Vixie" <paul@vix.com>, <nanog@merit.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 12:02:16 -0500
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Thus spake "Peter Galbavy" <peter.galbavy@knowtion.net>
> Why ?
>
> I am still waiting (after many years) for anyone to explain to me
> the issue of buffering. It appears to be completely unneccesary in
> a router.
Routers are not non-blocking devices. When an output port is blocked,
packets going to that port must be either buffered or dropped. While it's
obviously possible to drop them, like ATM/FR carriers do, ISPs have found
they have much happier customers when they do a reasonable amount of
buffering.
S
