QOS or more bandwidth

Tue May 29 14:59:08 UTC 2001

--- Sean Doran Wrote ---

>In the absence of such a document, from which anyone can build
>an interoperable "true" "end to end" QoS system into his or her
>product, I am tempted to believe that such buzzwords are weapons
>in a DoS attack by marketroids.

Yeah, I have to agree with you there.  I have long been of the opinion that 
all these are spouted off by marketing types and ATM biggots.  As far as I 
am concerned, a properly designed and run network makes QoS and MPLS more a 
hassle than a benefit.

>TDM.  What flavour would you like?  SONET/SDH?  PDH?  "Virtual >dark 
>fibre"?
>ITU-Grid optics?

That works very well for always on type service, but in reality, these type 
of services are not always on.  They are periodic, at best, and the time 
between the periods can be hours to days.  Right now they ARE over TDM, but 
TDM is expensive to supply (payback time and all).  Data services (ATM or 
IP) has a much better payback time.  And if you can get the stat mux gain, 
all the better.

Of course, the prices to the customer makes TDM more attractive.  (Something 
wrong with this picture?)

>If you're not sure that it'll be worth anything on arrival,
>you shouldn't send in the first place.

Well, in a voice call, if a packet is out of order, you want to drop it.  
Same with broadcast video.  There is no need to try to pick up that bit.  
This is real voice and video, not talking about stuff you get with 
quicktime...

>These are all travelling across multiple-provider paths today...

Not IP paths.  At least not that anyone has pointed out to me.

>The latter distributes the problem better.  The former requires
>well-adapting, well-behaved, Internet-ready apps to subsidize the
>migration of apps which are not all of these, and that will not fly.
>
>(Note that even the poor CoS substitute is unnecessary for current
>well-adapting, well-behaved, Internet-ready apps... that's one reason
>they're so inexpensive.)

Again, I agree totally with you.  Get teh apps in shape, and all will be 
good.

UK

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