BCP regarding TOS transparancy for internet traffic

Wed May 25 18:46:16 UTC 2005

On 5/25/2005 1:39 PM, Sam Stickland wrote:

> While it's true that IP is end-to-end, are fields such as TOS and DSCP 
> meant to be end to end? A case could be argued that they are used by the 
> actual forwarding devices on route in order to make QoS or even routing 
> decisions, and that the end devices shouldn't actually rely on the values 
> of these fields?

The markings may be used on customer networks too, even if they are not
interpreted or processed by intermediary networks (you). I mean, maybe
they are tagging different kinds of database traffic at egress and ingress
so that they can do their own congestion management. Unilaterally
rewriting all of the packets that cross your network imposes unnecessary
penalties on them and is generally rude.

It's also near blackmail--pay us or we'll overwrite your packets.

-- 
Eric A. Hall                                        http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols          http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/