[9367] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Cost vs benefit of internet services (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Thu Dec 30 22:56:58 1993
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 93 22:56 EST
From: emv@garnet.msen.com (Edward Vielmetti)
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
jim@tadpole.com (Jim Thompson) says
: But just ask the Alternet support folk, I'm a pain in the *ss!
: Probably more so 'cause I ask harder questions. :-) (e.g. Why the
: h*ll do my packets to a company linked to BARRnet route via PSI!??
: (But come back via BARRnet -> Alternet.))
Actually, this links up to the other thread that's going on in com-priv
rather nicely.
One noticable (and increasing) aspect of the current Internet is
asymmetrical routing, where packets travel different paths in
forward and reverse directions. This is perhaps not noticed as
much by individual users as it might be because traceroute
doesn't usually show what's going on.
There is nothing really wrong with routes that don't point exactly
the same way in each direction; TCP/IP will continue to work.
I am not aware of good research that quantifies the adverse
impact on TCP round trip time estimation, though it is entirely
possible that given enough of a pathological configuration you
could construct a network that melted down when congestion avoidance
algorithms were confused.
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, Msen Inc. emv@Msen.com
Msen Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI 48103 +1 313 998 4562 (fax: 998 4563)
