nanog mailing list archives

Re: I found the missing 30 milliseconds!


From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra () scfn thpl lib fl us>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 17:46:26 -0400

On Tue, Sep 16, 1997 at 01:01:53PM -0700, Kent W. England wrote a
treatise which identified the Rose Mary Woods of the Internet, or so he
thought...:
You can't send a packet out an interface until the entire packet has been
received on the incoming interface. Now if we assume 1500 byte packets (the
new de facto MTU on all modern Internet backbones) and DS-3 pipes, then it
takes about 250 microseconds to buffer the pkt on each hop. Since the US
internet backbone from coast to coast is about 120 hops, there's your 30
milliseconds and Bob's your uncle.

Did I do the arithmetic right?

I think you did the math right...

but isn't that what "cut-through" switching is all about?  Sending the
packet out before you're done getting it in?

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra () baylink com
Member of the Technical Staff             Unsolicited Commercial Emailers Sued
The Suncoast Freenet      "People propose, science studies, technology
Tampa Bay, Florida          conforms."  -- Dr. Don Norman      +1 813 790 7592


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