Re: Question about propagation and queuing delays

[Richard A Steenbergen <ras () e-gerbil net>]

On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 01:58:02PM -0400, Joe Abley wrote:
> Most networks I have touched that have seen fit to deploy some kind  
> of "quality of service" mechanism have done so in order to  
> deliberately degrade service in inverse proportion to what people are  
> prepared to spend. This is somewhat contrary to the marketing  
> message, since "pay us more money and we'll wreck your performance  
> less!" is unlikely to win awards as a slogan, but it happens  
> nonetheless.

All QoS implies is some level of intelligence in determining who is going 
to get the boot first when the @#$% hits the fan. Pay us more money (or 
otherwise be considered more "important", perhaps be one of those lovely 
"tracerouute" or "ping" packets :P) and we'll make someone else's packets 
drop before yours.

It may not be pretty, but sometimes there are some packets that you are 
more willing to sacrifice than others. Of course it is probably better if 
you just manage to steer your @#$% clear of the fan (where QoS = Quantity 
of Service), and yes networks who spend a significant amount of time 
dropping packets rather than carrying them (even if find creative ways to 
do it so that noone notices) are worse than networks who have capacity. 
But @#$% does happen even to the best of us, my take is that there is no 
point being so macho about it that you won't use a little technology to 
reduce the pain when it does happen.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras () e-gerbil net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)