nanog mailing list archives

Re: Selfish routing


From: "Stephen J. Wilcox" <steve () telecomplete co uk>
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 18:35:13 +0100 (BST)


On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Petri Helenius wrote:

Someone who built a rather good network used to say something along the
lines of "You are confused. QoS does not stand for Quality of Service. It
stands for Quantity of Service. What it means is that you don't have enough
capacity so you drop packets on the floor of those who pay you less money
before dropping on the floor packets of those who pay you more. At the end,
you still drop packets." Having capacity *always* makes a network better.

In general I agree here. Although its not always practical to do the necessary 
upgrades, especially in last mile where costs may be prohibitive.

While it´s general knowledge, it should be pointed out that having capacity
at each and every millisecond is quite different game than having your 5 minute
averages look nice.

I'm not sure it is general knowledge, I explain to someone at least once a week 
that just because youre graph is at 70% doesnt mean you have 30% spare.

Steve


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