LET'S JUST GO AROUND

[Michael Dillon]

On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, Jim Browning wrote:

> >> reliable than a multi-homed (the whole point is redundancy).  This
> >> will cost you market share.
> >
> >You don't need to multihome to get redundancy. You can achieve the same
> >reliability by using multiple links to an upstream provider that does
> >multihoming. There are several providers already that supply this service
> >to ISP's like TLG, IXA, Netaxs and so on.
> 
> Now now Michael, you are sounding like a Sprintlink rep.  Having multiple 
> connections to the same upstream provider does *not* provide the same level 
> of redundancy as connections to multiple upstream providers, especially if 
> you are talking about multiple connections to the same provider in the same 
> geographic area (which would no doubt be the case for a new ISP).  

Nothing will *GUARANTEE* that you will get 5 nines uptime. But if you
connect to a regional provider who is triple homed then you can solve the
one problem most people are concerned with and that is dependence on one
company's backbone. It still doesn't eliminate problems but local problems
tend to get fixed faster.

> There 
> are too many examples of provider specific router problems, congestion, and 
> power outages taking down a whole area (remember the Stanford facility 
> problem?) for the two solutions to be considered equivalent.

I remember Stanford quite well. Inadequate generator backup that hadn't
been tested recently and no good emergency procedures. But there are
providers who plan and engineer for emergency situations. An ISP can
install two demarcs and run connections through two CO's to two different
POP's of the same upstream regional provider. And the more demand there is
for this sort of service, the more regional providers will start offering
it.

> In fact this whole discussion of allocation policies is inappropriate on 
> the ARIN list.  Policy issues are within the scope of PAGAN, and they apply 
> to more than ARIN.  ARIN will be following the same allocation guidelines 
> InterNIC has used (similar but not identical to RIPE and APNIC), which are 
> documented and in use.

Exactly! 


Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com