Re: MPLS VPNs or not?

[Kevin Loch <kloch () opnsys com>]

> I don't think UUNET considered it a waste. UUNET could not have grown
> as quickly as it did during the mid to late 90s without L2 (Frame and
> ATM) technologies.  Fortunately for them, they did not have any pure IP
> only zealots that prevented the pragmatic use of other technologies
> in their networks.  Otherwise they probably would not have been able
> to outrun the other ISPs.
>
> UUNET received two benefits from it:
>
>         1.  Speed, since at the time L2 switches were faster
>             than routers, and
>         2.  Traffic engineering, which saved them money in transport
>             costs.
>
> Point 1 is no longer valid.  Point 2 is still valid.
>
> UUNET built bigger and better networks at the time because of this.
> The market decided that UUNET was right.  UUNET's shareholders were
> well rewarded because of what you called this "waste".
>
> I guess the real question should be how much market cap did other
> companies lose because of certain people's zealotry?  Any answers
> Vadim?

Diddn't PSInet deploy L2 switching massively throughout their network?
What did the market decide about that?  Could it be that UUNet's success
was due to other factors?  BTW, I'm not sure that #1 above was ever true
in a large scale network.

KL