Akamai Edgekey issues ?

Tue Sep 3 15:07:38 UTC 2013

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick at ianai.net>

> >> Not a case of "broken" traffic engineering at all.
> >
> > Sure it is.
> >
> > It's assuming that the geographic location of a customer resolver
> > server
> > has anything whatever to do with the geographic location of the end
> > node,
> > which it's not in fact a valid proxy for.
> 
> It isn't? How wrong is this assumption? Be specific. How far off is
> it, for how many users?

Well, the vast majority of wireless users, for one: Sprint can't decide
whether I'm in Miami, Orlando, or Lenexa, Kansas on any given day.

More properly: people whose websites geolocate and whom I access
over Sprint 3g/Wimax/LTE.  They're probably geolocating by the actual
assigned IP address, but it's roughly the same thing.

> Perhaps look at the other side. Assumptions must be made. What
> assumptions would be better in the real world? What percentage of
> users are "closer" to anycast nodes? What are the real-world
> performance differences using this method vs. other methods?

I didn't say there was a *good* answer to this, and in fact, I don't
think there is.  

> Saying "not in fact a valid proxy" without hard data is not useful.
> What data do you have to prove your thesis?
> 
> Akamai seems to perform well for the vast majority of users. Or so I
> believe, but I fully admit I am biased. :)

Heh.  :-)

> That said, always happy to be educated. If you have data, let us know.

Well played, Patrick.  No, it's anecdotal.  But the percentage of wireless
users who are of necessity often nowhere near their DNS resolvers certainly
contributes to the percentages.

There are people who are manually stuck on the wrong network's servers, or
those who are configured to 4.4.4.4/8.8.8.8/4.2.2.1 by IT people (or themselves)
or to OpenDNS or the like, but I'd be surprised if those were more than 5% 
overall.

It's mostly wireless.  And that's a lot.

Is it relevant to Akamai?  Possibly not.

For Akamai, the proxy may be Good Enough.  Just so we remember that not everyone
is Akamai.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
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