[TriLUG] RR Network Reliablity

[Ryan Leathers]

First of all, CIR and QoS are probably the most misunderstood elements
of Frame Relay.  It is widely accepted that since billing is based in no
small part on CIR there must be a lot to it. In fact, it matters little.
I'll spare going too deep into this tangent, except to say, when it
comes to reliable quality delivery of packets you should be far more
concerned with the access loop technology than anything to do with Frame
Relay itself.

Interestingly, if you have been satisfied with Frame Relay performance,
but wish to save some $, you are a perfect candidate for ADSL.  As a
Frame customer you have almost certainly already been using DSL as your
access loop (HDSL, HDSL2, or perhaps SDSL).  ADSL is the Asymmetric
cousin of these "buisiness class" DSLs, and largely for reasons of
efficiency it has become the "residential class" DSL of choice among
providers. It does not enjoy the same high priority support as the more
expensive loop technologies do, but this is not so much a technical
liability as a business decision on the part of the provider. 

The reason ADSL is potentially a good fit for you is that it mirrors, as
a local loop technology, the asymmetric layer 2 behavior you have become
accustomed to with Frame Relay.  Remember that with Frame you can get
the full capacity of the loop downstream, but there are some upstream
limitations in the form of CIR, Bc, Be.  So, long story short, if you
are willing to trade a bit of mean time to repair (MTTR) for lower
monthly cost, you may find that ADSL is a perfect fit.  

Random thought: I know of at least one DSLAM maker who offers "Frame
over ADSL" line cards - go figure.

Ryan   

On Tue, 2005-11-08 at 08:36 -0500, Chad Thomsen wrote:
> Interesting. Is anybody running RR business class at work? Reason I ask is
> my Frame Relay contract for seven sights is up for renewal in about 4
> months. Two years ago I looked into RR business class but they did not have
> the lines run to my facilities and they wanted me to incure the costs of
> running the lines so I said no and stuck with frame. I also could not
> swallow the pill of having no CIR or QOS since we run VOIP. I doubt things
> (performance) has changed that much in two years. I also spoke with a guy at
> a conference who switched to Broadband business class only to swith back to
> frame due to lack of CIR and QOS.
> 
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> CHad
> 
> On 11/7/05, Jeff Groves <jgroves at krenim.org> wrote:
> >
> > I wouldn't tolerate any ping losses to any of the RoadRunner servers
> > such as their news, mail, or smtp servers.
> >
> > Jeff G.
> >
> > Ron Joffe wrote:
> >
> > >What would be expected as far as reliability?
> > >
> > >Ron
> > >
> > >On Monday 07 November 2005 12:06, Jeffrey A. Groves wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >>This is a valid test.
> > >>
> > >>Call RoadRunner tech support and ask for a second level technician as
> > soon
> > >>as they answer the phone.
> > >>
> > >>Work with them until they see the packet losses too. It may take a
> > while,
> > >>but take the time.
> > >>
> > >>They followed this procedure when this was happeneing to me:
> > >>
> > >>1) Dispatched a technician to my house to check the drop from the pole
> > >> Result: technician replace the coax from the telephone pole to the box
> > >> on the side of my house, but did not fix the problem.
> > >> Technician opened a ticket for a problem on the main line.
> > >> This ticket was pencil-whipped a day or two later -- problem
> > >> still was occuring
> > >>
> > >>A week later...
> > >>
> > >>2) Dispatched a technician to house to check the local drop again --
> > >> Result: found everything in good order on the drop and opened
> > >> a ticket on the main line. This time they actually
> > >> worked the ticket. Two days later problem was fixed.
> > >>
> > >>This resulted in getting the cable modem problem fixed and a noticeable
> > >>improvement in my Cable TV signal in the house :-D
> > >>
> > >>Jeff G.
> > >>
> > >>Ron Joffe said:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>>Hey folks,
> > >>>
> > >>>Looking for a suggestion. I have noticed that my VPN tunnels seem to
> > drop
> > >>>on a random order.
> > >>>
> > >>>So I have set up a simple ping cron job, I have it sending out 60 pings
> > >>>every minute to three servers (one on the RR network {DNS}, one on the
> > >>>east coast, one on the west coast).
> > >>>
> > >>>The job is run every minute, so in fact this is a continuous ping that
> > >>>sends results every minute.
> > >>>
> > >>>I see that of my 60 packets, I loose a few almost once every 3 minutes.
> > >>>This seems to affect all three servers.
> > >>>
> > >>>So my questions are:
> > >>>
> > >>>1. Is this providing me with a valid network test?
> > >>>2. What kind of results should I expect?
> > >>>3. What type of network reliability test would you recommend?
> > >>>4. What type of network reliability should I expect?
> > >>>
> > >>>Thanks,
> > >>>
> > >>>Ron
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>--
> > >>>TriLUG mailing list :
> > >>>http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ
> > >>>: http://trilug.org/faq/
> > >>>TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>--
> > >>
> > >>Jeffrey A. Groves jgroves at krenim.org
> > >> Web Site: http://www.krenim.org/
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> > --
> > Jeff Groves
> > email: jgroves at krenim.org Web Site: http://www.krenim.org/
> >
> >
> > --
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> >