From: Howard C. Berkowitz (hcb@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Fri Mar 08 2002 - 13:53:05 GMT-3
At 11:00 AM -0500 3/8/02, Craig Columbus wrote:
>I'm sure you'll get better answers than mine, but I think it boils
>down to your customer base.
>If you're dealing with small customers that only have a few hundred
>nodes, BGP probably isn't necessary.
>If your customer has 100000 nodes, a worldwide WAN, and the need for
>multiple redundant Net connections that don't tie them to an ISP,
>you'll want a portable IP space and peer this space with the
>providers using BGP.
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Craig
It's less a matter of number of nodes than your connectivity policy.
A "small customer" might have 10 hosts, right? But what if those 10
hosts are Amazon's firewalls? They obviously need complex
connectivity to multiple providers, and probably to multiple POPs of
the providers.
The key question to ask (see http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1930.txt)
is: does the enterprise have an Internet connectivity that differs
from its provider(s)?
This discussion hasn't touched on the internal applications of BGP
within enterprises. I've used it many times to create a "backbone of
backbones," doing such things as forcing certain exit points,
controlled Internet access, and mutual backup arrangements. I've
also built intercontinental backbones of backbones with floating
static routes, when the particular enterprise topology was highly
hierarchical.
These are obviously very simplified explanations. My "WAN Survival
Book" from Wiley goes into enterprise WAN (including Internet)
connectivity at book length. You can also navigate to the last NANOG
Atlanta meeting and see my presentation on "customer satisfaction,"
which gets into some analysis of my customer requirements. I'll have
all my presentations and non-publisher-copyrighted papers online at
gettlabs.com in the next couple of weeks.
>
>At 03:25 PM 3/8/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>>Question.
>>
>>Why would a company want BGP?
>>
>>In what scenarios would it be good working policy to actually sell
>>them BGP instead of advertising their netblock through
>>redistribution means and giving them a default route.
>>I have struggled with this question for a while and I can't really
>>come up with any hard evidence to the benefits of BGP for a
>>customer.
>>
>>I mean what does BGP give a customer?
>>
>>Any thoughts welcome
>>
>>Robert McCallum CCIE #8757
>>Data Network Engineer
>>Ext 730 3448
>>DDI : 01415663448
>>Mobile : 07818002241
>>
>>"You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and
>>still come out completely dry. Most people do."
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