BGPttH. Neustar can do it, why can't we?

Tue Aug 7 19:05:55 UTC 2012

The problem you're missing is that there is 0 market pressure to build 
and standardize all of this.

Netconf isn't a claimed standard yet much less a functional one in the 
SOHO world.  Lets assume for a moment that someone finds enough of a 
reason to herd the cats that are the soho router market and gets them to 
adopt Netconf or another rational method for distributed configuration, 
you haven't dealt with the hardest problem.  The router configuration 
isn't the most challenging one.  _What_ to communicate or configure is 
the hard part and unless you're going to put the service provider in 
charge of the BGP session very few businesses have the internal OR 
external resources to answer these simple questions.

1. The ASN number of the two providers  //smb response, what's an ASN?  Why do I have pay for one, I already pay for Internet service.
2. The ASN to be used for the local side  //read response 1
3. The IP Address to use on the local end of each connection  //who figures this out?
4. The IP Address to peer with on each connection  //same question
5. The prefix(es) to be advertised.  //again, who figures this out?

On 8/6/2012 7:38 PM, Owen DeLong wrote:
> On Aug 6, 2012, at 16:15 , William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:
>>> That's simply not true at all...
>>>
>>> Let's look at what it takes to configure BGP as I suggested...
>>>
>>> 1. The ASN number of the two providers
>>> 2. The ASN to be used for the local side
>>> 3. The IP Address to use on the local end of each connection
>>> 4. The IP Address to peer with on each connection
>>> 5. The prefix(es) to be advertised.
>> Add to that:
>>
>> 6. Primary A, Primary B, Balanced (routing priority via AS path prepends)
> Not absolutely required and certainly going beyond what is required to provide slightly better than the functionality provided with the dual-NAT scenario.
>
>> 7. Optional password for each session (some ISPs require one)
> Fair enough, but pretty trivial.
>
>> Or take another tack: have the SOHO router accept a URL for each BGP
>> connection and have the provider build the config. Then all you enter
>> is your provider-assigned interface address, a DNS server address and
>> a URL.
> Well, I was going for zeroconf, but yes, that was basically allowed for in what I described.
>
>> Your point is well taken. A leaf node BGP configuration could be
>> simplified to the point where it fits on a SOHO router config page and
>> does not require an expert to configure.
>>
> Yep... And it could even be made 100% automated zeroconf with a little more effort.
>
> It could even use provider-assigned private-ASNs and a shared PA prefix with a little additional ingenuity.
>
> Owen
>
>

-- 
Scott Helms
Vice President of Technology
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