Re: routing around Sprint's depeering damage

[George William Herbert <gherbert () retro com>]

"Justin M. Streiner" <streiner () cluebyfour org> wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Nov 2008, Matthew Kaufman wrote:
> > Ah yes, I suspect we can get all the network operators here to agree that any 
> > customer of another ISP should buy a second connection "just in case". Maybe 
> > this breakage will turn out to be the best way for everyone to double their 
> > customer base overnight.
> >
> > But seriously, it shouldn't be necessary to have two connections at work, two 
> > connections at home, two connections for each mobile device, just to ensure 
> > that when large providers stop working together you can still reach what you 
> > need to reach.
>
> No, but the providers who provide those connections should be multihomed. 
> If they're not, I'd consider switching providers.  Simple as that.

As with fiber, the tendency for multiple diverse upstreams to be
groomed together, and / or end up through the same physical pipe up
the layers some, is nonzero and in some cases significantly high.

The only way to actually reliably defeat that risk is to walk your
ISP up the size chart to Tier 1 and total control of what you talk to.

That was a much more attractive path in the mid-late 90s than it is today.


-george william herbert
gherbert () retro com