Re: Two Tiered Internet

[Michael.Dillon () btradianz com]

> To let customers decide priorities in your backbone is a bad idea, but I
> don't think that's the issue here. Assuming the customer's link to the
> network to be the primary bottleneck; there's nothing wrong with giving
> customers the ability to prioritise traffic on their link, provided that
> your access-equipment is able to handle queueing etc (given fool-proof
> mechanisms that enable self-service and keep your NOC out of the loop of
> course;).

Precisely!

In today's world, lots of router configuration is not
done manually by anybody. There is an OSS system that
applies rules to what changes will and will not be
done and when they will be done.

Since QoS works by degrading the quality of service
for some streams of packets in a congestion scenario
and since congestion scenarios are most common on 
end customer links, it makes sense to let the end
customers fiddle with the QoS settings in both
directions on their link.

Of course, any incoming packet markings should be 
discarded or ignored once the packets pass the 
provider's edge router. 

This is possible today without any special support
from router vendors. It relies entirely on operational
support systems such as web servers, databases and
remote control servers.

QoS is for customers, not for network operators!

--Michael Dillon