A bit late to the discussion, but here are my thoughts:
On Thu., 2022-03-24 3:58 p.m., Richard Laager wrote:
> At Wiktel, I peer with MN VoIP's far away extensions in Minneapolis.
> For example, I peer at SeattleIX (SIX) in Minneapolis. This has caused
> me some issues. For example, latency-sensitive gaming traffic was
> tromboning
> Wiktel-Minneapolis-Seattle-Chicago-Seattle-Minneapolis-Wiktel rather
> than Wiktel-Chicago-Wiktel.
This is the biggest issue I am concerned about. Layer-2 can't tell us
how far away the peer is. BGP doesn't have knobs for varying latency
across peers on the same Layer-2. The SIX example of really-remote
peers, with resultant latency higher than Transit, is a performance
degradation for SIX and their members, and reduces the quality of SIX,
I'd argue.
I would suggest that MICE have a limit, say 5 ms RTT, on latency to
remote switches. Then we can say that MICE is in a geographic region,
not potentially a pan-North-America layer-2.
Part of MICE's identity should be its location, and the resultant
low-latency across MICE itself.
If MICE is in Kansas City, and KCIX is in Minneapolis, what's the
difference between them? Why do they both exist if they serve the same
datacentres in the same way: a Layer-2 ethernet fabric?
I become confused at what problem is being solved when IXes start
overlapping and becoming non-geographic, rather than limited to a metro
area, or certain radius around a hub.
I think there's a difference between an individual member (me) arriving
over a long layer-2 link (from Winnipeg) to the IX, and the IX doing
long layer-2 links themselves. The difference is that I have knowledge
of and control over my long-haul links, but if the IX does it,
unexpectedly long-haul paths happen without my decision to use them.
Finally, I'm a big fan of what MICE has accomplished so far, I hope this
message doesn't read as being overly critical.
Cheers,
Jonathan
AS18451 - LES.NET
Jonathan Stewart
Network Engineer
LES.NET - AS18451
Desk: 1-204-666-6191
Mobile: 1-204-990-2120
130 Portage Avenue E
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0A1
CANADA
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