North American Network Operators Group
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Re: 10GE router resource

  • From: Mark Newton
  • Date: Wed Mar 26 08:39:15 2008


On 26/03/2008, at 10:23 PM, Greg VILLAIN wrote:

It is not about making it work, it is about having it work -all the time-, 

Hey, that sounds fantastic.  Can you let me know where I can get one
of these platforms that works -all the time-?  Because the ones I have
now crash occasionally, which is inconvenient.  And untidy.

Surely the thing that needs to work all the time is the network, not any
individual forwarding element within the network. Design so that a software
or hardware fault in a commodity-OS router doesn't take down the whole network,
then you can leave any serious outages until next business day.

That's how we're meant to do things. Right?

Considering that all major vendors are using open-source OS's as the
embedded microkernel of choice and running their "operating system" as an
application (anyone have any ACE blades in 6500's?), I'm not convinced by
any FUD that says open source OS's aren't suitable for routers. All we're
really talking about here is the depth of the abstractions that implement
the features we need; whether they're on dedicated silicon, custom- designed
hardware, or a PC doesn't matter at all if they all meet customer-stated
requirements for performance and reliability.


- mark


--
Mark Newton Email: [email protected] (W)
Network Engineer Email: [email protected] (H)
Internode Systems Pty Ltd Desk: +61-8-82282999
"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton" Mobile: +61-416-202-223