CISCO NOW COMPETING WITH INTERNAP... Internap doomed?
NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND JOANIE WEXLER ON WIDE
AREA NETWORKING
07/15/04
Today's focus: Cisco joins route-optimization crowd
By Steve Taylor and Joanie Wexler
You may recall discussions in past issues of this newsletter
about route-optimization, or route-control, appliances. These
stand-alone devices, available from companies such as Internap
Network Services, Opnix and Route Science, are used in
situations when you have sites that are dual- or multi-homed to
two or more ISPs.
The purpose is to dynamically choose the optimum ISP connection
based on performance variables other than just the shortest path
- typically the only criteria used by standard routing
algorithms. Recently, Cisco hopped onto the route-optimization
bandwagon, too, when it bundled such capabilities directly into
its routers.
Typically, route-optimization appliances function as a Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP) peer with your own Internet access router
and your ISPs' head-end routers, comparing data path performance
end to end across all available paths before selecting a route.
Now Cisco routers collapse this functionality directly into its
WAN access routers. Cisco routers running what the company calls
the Optimized Edge Routing (OER) feature, available in Cisco IOS
Software Release 12.3(8)T, can make real-time routing
adjustments based on criteria other than shortest-hop criteria,
too, possibly precluding the need to purchase a separate,
stand-alone device for achieving this function.
Cisco routers consider traffic characteristics including
latency, packet loss, link usage, reachability and throughput to
choose the optimum path. This information is gathered by
existing Cisco network management capabilities such as NetFlow
accounting and Service Assurance Agent real-time performance
monitoring - other features embedded in Cisco IOS.
OER can perform route optimization for specific purposes such as
minimizing costs or maintaining QoS for certain application
traffic sensitive to metrics such as delay, according to the
company.
For example, say you have a fixed-base and tiered-base cost
structure on various links. Depending on performance
requirements, OER can reportedly route your call to whichever
has the lowest-cost link available at that moment.
RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
Route optimization boxes recognize applications
Network World Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 12/16/03
nwfusion.com
Route analytics vs. route control
Network World Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 07/08/03
nwfusion.com
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Joanie Wexler
Steve Taylor is President of Distributed Networking Associates
and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Webtorials.Com. For more
detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this
newsletter, connect to Webtorials.Com
<http://www.webtorials.com/>, the first Web site dedicated
exclusively to market studies and technology tutorials in the
Broadband Packet areas of Frame Relay, ATM, and IP. He can be
reached at <mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>
Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology
writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most
of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer
networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles
published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future
article topics. Reach her at <mailto:joanie@jwexler.com>. |
