North American Network Operators Group
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Re: packet reordering at exchange points

  • From: Stephen Sprunk
  • Date: Wed Apr 10 13:06:01 2002 
Thus spake "Peter Galbavy" <[email protected]>
> 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