ISPs and full packet inspection

Fri May 25 02:21:44 UTC 2012

On Thu, 24 May 2012, Jimmy Hess wrote:

> On 5/24/12, not common <notcommonmistakes at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip
>> I am looking for some guidance on full packet inspection at the ISP level.

Aside from all of the business and legal sticking points that others have 
mentioned, there are also the technical aspects of capturing, storing, 
transporting, analyzing, and managing those packets, and the appliances 
that do the heavy lifting.  As your traffic grows, that problem scales 
1:1 linearly, at best, and more likely n:1 linearly, or worse.  The added 
overhead of the infrastructure needed to support this will also make it 
more difficult to be price-competitive with your peers.

Your sales/marketing/executive staff would have their work cut out for 
them in trying to explain to existing and prospective customers not only 
where the value-add is for them, but why that would be worth the 
significant recurring costs you'd have to charge to cover your overhead 
and/or maintain your profit margin.

jms