Outbound Route Optimization

Wed Jan 21 20:50:58 UTC 2004

On Jan 21, 2004, at 3:27 PM, Jim Devane wrote:

> Hello,
>
>  
>
> I am trying to determine for myself the relevance of Intelligent 
> Routing Devices like Sockeye, Route Science etc. I am not trying to 
> determine who does it better, but rather if the concept of optimizing 
> routes is addressing a significant problem in terms of improved 
> traffic performance ( not in cost savings of disparate transit pipes )
>
> I am interested in hearing other views ( both for and against ) these 
> devices in the context of optimizing latency for a small multi-homed 
> ISP. I want to make sure I understand their context correctly and have 
> not missed any important points of view.
>
>             My questions are these:
>
>  
>
> “Is sub-optimal routing caused by BGP so pervasive it needs to be 
> addressed?”
>
> “Are these devices able to effectively address the need?”
>
>  

BGP makes no decisions based on "quality" of a route.  If you are using 
anything that's dependent on low latency/packet loss/jitter (eg, VoIP, 
games, ssh for someone who gets annoyed by >20ms of latency, etc), 
there's lots of room for improvement, especially when you are buying 
from "bargain" transit's.

Everyone I know who's used a device like Sockeye, Route Science, etc, 
falls into one of two categories.
1) For reasons unrelated to them owning said device, I consider them to 
be generally lacking clue.
2) They hated it.

I've never used one myself, but based on testimonials like that, I'd 
tend to say that they generally don't work too well.

If you hire a consultant who knows what they're doing, it should be 
pretty simple to set up a meaningful routing policy which does this for 
you.

Just my $0.02

--Phil Rosenthal
ISPrime, Inc.