North American Network Operators Group
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RE: Followup British Telecom outage reason

  • From: Christian Kuhtz
  • Date: Wed Nov 28 23:43:01 2001 
> I guess some time someone will realize routers are both
> hardware, and software, and shock horror both, if done
> well, can actually add value. [hint & example: compare the
> scheduler on, say, Linux/FreeBSD, Windows 95 (sic),
> and your favourite router OS (*); pay particular attention
> to suitability for running realtime, or near realtime tasks,
> where such tasks may occasionally crash or overrun their
> expected timeslice; note how the best OS amongst the
> bunch for this aint exactly great].
>
> (*) results may vary according to personal choice here.

Don't use a non-realtime OS for something that you expect realtime or
near-realtime OS functionality.  There are specific systems to address these
kinds of needs with rather complicated scheduling mechanism to accomodate
such requirements in a sensible manner.

Is IOS a realtime operating system?  No.  Are any of the other listed OS
realtime operating systems?  No.  (The (*) doesn't count).   Do I wish some
of these clowns would use sophisticated realtime OS?  Yes.  Will it solve
world hunger?  Decidedly not.

Cheers,
Chris