nanog mailing list archives

Re: /27 the new /24


From: Josh Luthman <josh () imaginenetworksllc com>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 15:27:08 -0400

Can I suggest you not use a $1000 software driven device to do the job of a
500 watt device on a 10 Gbps network?

Mikrotik has its faults, yes, but it certainly has a place as well.  That
just happens to not be where the $4,000 Cisco is.


Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 3:22 PM, Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org> wrote:

Often I find that used Cisco gear is more reliable and just as affordable
than newer gear with that tasty, flakey crust. I've had a terrible time
with CCRs falling over with 1GB traffic while Cisco L3 3750s don't even
breathe hard at 10Gbps. I see no reason to use anything like 2500w even
with Cisco gear. A dual Cisco 3750 stack consumes maybe 500W. Cisco
firmware, for all its faults, seems to be much better tested than
Mikrotik's.

I once asked Mikrotik's support engineers how they performed regression
testing, and they said "because we are a small, agile, disruptive innovator
we don't follow old-school testing regimens. We're more interested in
shipping affordable product." That's also their excuse for poor
documentation.

From what I can see, "small, agile, disruptive innovator" is an excuse
newer networking companies often give for "sloppy, poorly tested,
ill-conceived" product development.



 -mel beckman

On Oct 2, 2015, at 11:44 AM, Mike Hammett <nanog () ics-il net> wrote:

Chances are the revenue passing scales to some degree as well. Small
business with small bandwidth needs buys small and has small revenue. Big
business with big bandwidth needs buys big and has big revenue to support
big router.

I can think of no reason why ten years goes by and you haven't had a
need to throw out the old network for new. If your business hasn't scaled
with the times, then you need to get rid of your Cat 6500 and get something
more power, space, heat, etc. efficient.


I saw someone replace a stack of Mikrotik CCRs with a pair of old Cisco
routers. I don't know what they were at the moment, but they had GBICs, so
they weren't exactly new. Each router had two 2500w power supplies. They'll
be worse in every way (other than *possibly* BGP convergence). The old
setup consumed at most 300 watts. The new setup requires $500/month in
power... and is worse.

Stop using old shit.




-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com



Midwest Internet Exchange
http://www.midwest-ix.com


----- Original Message -----

From: "William Herrin" <bill () herrin us>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog () ics-il net>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog () nanog org>
Sent: Friday, October 2, 2015 1:09:16 PM
Subject: Re: /27 the new /24

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 11:50 AM, Mike Hammett <nanog () ics-il net> wrote:
How many routers out there have this limitation? A $100 router
I bought ten years ago could manage many full tables. If
someone's network can't match that today, should I really have
any pity for them?

Hi Mike,

The technology doesn't work the way you think it does. Or more
precisely, it only works the way you think it does on small (cheap)
end-user routers. Those routers do everything in software on a
general-purpose CPU using radix tries for the forwarding table (FIB).
They don't have to (and can't) handle both high data rates and large
routing tables at the same time.

For a better understanding how the big iron works, check out
https://www.pagiamtzis.com/cam/camintro/ . You'll occasionally see
folks here talk about TCAM. This stands for Ternary Content
Addressable Memory. It's a special circuit, different from DRAM and
SRAM, used by most (but not all) big iron routers. The TCAM permits an
O(1) route lookup instead of an O(log n) lookup. The architectural
differences which balloon from there move the router cost from your
$100 router into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Your BGP advertisement doesn't just have to be carried on your $100
router. It also has to be carried on the half-million-dollar routers.
That makes it expensive.

Though out of date, this paper should help you better understand the
systemic cost of a BGP route advertisement:
http://bill.herrin.us/network/bgpcost.html

Regards,
Bill Herrin




--
William Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com bill () herrin us
Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>




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