Average case performance vs. Worst-case guarantee

Fri Sep 26 23:35:09 UTC 2003

An entity claiming to be sthaug at nethelp.no (sthaug at nethelp.no) wrote:
: 
: >   When an ISP buys a router does it want a worst-case guarantee about the
: > router's capabilities? Or will it buy a router which can give better
: > performance in the average case (it may drop some packets if the traffic
: > pattern changes suddenly)? Assuming both cost the same.
: 
: Worst case guarantee is necessary in many cases. Easy example:
: 
: A router that can handle an STM-1 of regular Internet traffic is worthless
: to us if it dies in the face of an STM-1 with minimum sized attack traffic.
: 

Perhaps we can generalize this by pointing out the dearth of SLA's based
upon average-case.  

Mark

-- 
[] Mark 'Doc' Rogaski     |     Guess what? I got a fever! And the only
[] wendigo at pobox.com      |     prescription ... is more cowbell!
[] 1994 Suzuki GS500ER    |     -- Christopher Walken (as Bruce Dickinson)
[] 1975 Yamaha RD250B     |
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