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Re: The Internet Revealed - A film about IXPs v2.0: now available


From: Darren Bolding <darren () bolding org>
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:06:13 -0800

Look, it's a very nice video, and I think it is useful and the creators
should be complimented on their work.  Overall it is something I would like
to use to educate less IP-savvy folk.

But, as a hyper-aware viewer I did detect a tone in favor of "network
neutrality" type arguments- and I suppose that is OK.

One thing I found that didn't match with my recollection is that it depicts
IXP's as a response to private peering.  My recollection was that while the
earliest peering may have been some private peering, rapidly MAE-EAST etc.
became points of major traffic sharing and large scale private
peering/interconnects were a response to the issues at the various meeting
points.

Perhaps my recollection is incorrect?

And aren't most exchanges today effectively private interconnects across a
shared L2 device?


On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Patrick W. Gilmore <patrick () ianai net>wrote:

On Feb 10, 2010, at 11:50 AM, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:
On Wed, 10 Feb 2010, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:

Agree to disagree is right.  The film is called "The Internet Revealed:
_A_film_about_IXPs_".  You find it strange that the film would actually
focus on IXPs.  I find it strange that you couldn't figure this out before
clicking play.

If it would have said "The internet revealed - an advertisement for IXPs"
I might have been expecting the thing I got.

It's a matter of degree, right?


However, I do believe you should know how the Internet works.  And if
you honestly believe packets in a single stream cannot travel over different
paths, you clearly do not.  And before you come back with BS about "normal
operation" or such, realize your statement was far more "factually
incorrect" than what the video said about private interconnects.

I'm saying they don't normally do so, as one might believe when looking
at the movie. Any core router ECMP algorithm that sprays L4 sessions like
that will cause re-ordering which is bad, mkay.

Yes, flow switching is common, but it is by no means guaranteed.  Lots of
people do per-packet across LAG bundles.  The Internet topology changes do
not wait until all TCP sessions are complete.  Not everyone does flow
switching.  Etc.

Which all means, as I said in my last sentence above, that you are doing
exactly what you accuse them of doing - only worse.  Your "facts" are not
facts, the most you can accuse this video of is not explaining things fully.

I guess the only question left is: What are you advertising?


But I'll shut up after this, I'm obviously not jaded enough like you
other people to just swallow this as "advertisement". I expected a correct
factual way of describing how the Internet works including IXPs, not an IXP
advertisement. My expectations were obviously wrong from the response I'm
seeing.

I wouldn't call you "jaded" when you do what you accuse others of doing.

And to be clear, you got "a correct factual way of describing how the
Internet works including IXPs".  It may not have been complete, but if you
honestly expected a complete description of the Internet in a film of /any/
length ... well, words fail me.

--
TTFN,
patrick





-- 
--  Darren Bolding                  --
--  darren () bolding org           --


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