North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Cable Modem [really more about PPPoE]

  • From: Steve Schaefer
  • Date: Tue Jun 26 13:10:17 2001

On Tue, 26 Jun 2001, Daniel Senie wrote:

> At 12:21 PM 6/26/01, Steve Schaefer wrote:
>
> >The constraint is that outbound packets need to go to the right ISP.  That
> >is, the packets need to go through the carrier network according to the
> >business relationship, not according to the destination IP address.
>
> This isn't necessarily the case. Take a look at rent-a-POP dialups. UUNet
> sells services to LOTS of ISPs from all of its POPs. The RADIUS
> authentication has to get to the proper ISP, but the traffic certainly does
> NOT travel to the ISP's network before going out into the world.

Well, are we talking about carrier transport or a wholesale Internet
access?  For UUNet to do this is a perfectly acceptable business
relationship.  For SBC to do this is a big no-no.

> The same scenario COULD be used in DSL or cable setups. That's not to say
> that it will be.

I suppose an unregulated DSL provider could do this.  However, I would not
assume that even the DSL CLECs would be permitted, so I'm not sure such an
animal exists.  In any case, I know that this was _not_ what our customers
wanted when I was working for a DSL CLEC.  They represented their business
access products on the strength of their transit arrangements and support.

Now, if we're talking about purely residential services, it's potentially
a different ball game.  Price and ease of use are king -- more so than
redundancy and consistent performance.

Cable providers act as ISPs.  If they offer wholesale Internet access,
rather than carrier transport, then they can run their networks like UUNet
dial POPs.  I think most of them still offer neither...


-Steve