Hi Frank,
I'd like to discuss your following statements:
"... the obstacles facing Juniper and the other startups, where the Internet's core technologies are concerned, are now being mitigated to some degree."
Hmm... IMHO the biggest problem that all of these startups have is not related to technology, but install base and account control. Next would be market fragmentation by so many companies chasing the same dream...
"This is taking place, ostensibly, by new approaches that call for edge-to-edge-directness, bypassing previous constructs where intelligence was embedded in the core. This is known as stupid networking."
Are you implying that Juniper's router, et al. are making network edge-to-edge path forwarding decisions, and not relying on upstream/border routers to aggregate paths? (Granted the "edge" here is not really an edge, given where these products are installed). I grant you that within a given transport network most "routing" takes place at the edge (and is really interface/speed conversion) and the middle is going to be some L2-ish technology (SONET, ATM). But, the core of Internet still heavily relies on distributed routing and intelligence. Do you think the 'Net would scale if all the forwarding intelligence was pushed truly to the edges, with no hierarchies for aggregation? Or are you assuming that the core of the 'Net will become much more L2-ish/high speed circuit switching oriented?
"While smarts in the core are bering de-emphasized, they are being emphasized and enhanced at the network's edge and at the individual host levels.".
What specifically are you referring to? DiffServ or MPLS for QoS? RSVP? RTP?
Sorry if this sounds off-thread, but it goes directly towards companies like Juniper's ability to succeed in the market, affects on Cisco, etc.
-- Dave Logan |
