9th Gigapop Geeks BOF
 hosted by Dan Magorian & Brent Sweeny
Welcome!!  The forum where Gigapop/RON operators can rant, rave, and be politically incorrect about current hot technical topics.
Now that the 2 R&E nets are acting like competing vendors, how many neutral forums are left where free speech is still possible?
TonightÕs discussion topics, 3 technical, 1 political:
More on MAX VRFs, v1 and v2:  Dave Diller
More on bgp hinting:  Brent Sweeny
CPS communities, troubleshooting:  Caren Litvanyi
"It petered out with a sick thud:  two competing R&E nets for the foreseeable future,  and All ThatÒ:   Dan

CPS/TransitRail Thoughts
This is CarenÕs topic, but before she starts on the technicals I wanted to do a quick informal poll:
How many operators in the room are using either settlement-free services?  Which?  Anyone using both for eg backup/redundancy? (Dave Farmer?)
Both are growing, seem to be a useful approach. IU runs CPS, PNW/Cenic TR, could be argued that having competition might be a good thing.  Or not.  Also different approaches technically, VRFs vs separate routers (ASNs), pick the one you like.
So what are peopleÕs experiences?  Any issues about transparency?  (Where is TRÕs router proxy?)  Routing?  Anything to talk about?  As services, how do they really compare?

ÒIt petered out with a sick thud:  two competing R&E nets for the foreseeable future, & All ThatÓ:
OK, everyone is Totally Sick of this whole topic.
Absolutely No One likes the way it is now.
Serious brain drain out of the community as the smart techies That Have Always Been the Core
Realize that R&E networking is now more about CIO egos and religious loyalty than about doing cool stuff
So why not go off to Google or Amazon where Things are Still Happening and make a lot more money?
The feud has trickled down to customers,
Who see the divisiveness and lack of direction and wonder if theyÕre spending their money well
Whereas RONs used to buffer them from these issues

Hardly seems any point in even discussing possible solutions
We can if anyone still has any hope.
<This is not rhetorical>.
Does anyone not with I2 or NLR believe in some positive solution?
Most people just wish that Someone Would Buy Them Both and Solve It All For Us.  Not bloody likely.
By way of background, at MAX over the last year weÕve had our share of this come home to roost.
All right then, so it seems like there might be a point in discussing potential outcomes.

So let me lay my pessimistic outcome on you, and we can argue about that.
Almost everyone agrees that the current state isnÕt sustainable.
Not enough money in the community for both.
Zero sum game for customers leads to Loyalty Paranoia
Neither one seems to be willing/able to give up or fold.
Both are now having severe financial issues, I2 laying off people, NLR having no real future funding model, etc etc.
So this Òdeath gripÓ really canÕt continue for very long.
So I think that theyÕre
going to kill each other off and people are going to walk away from both and build the next generation.  ÒR&E v6Ó  (NSFnet v1, vBNS v2, Abilene v3, NLR v4, Newnet v5)

Having said that, this may be the last Geeks BOF that I2 is willing to buy the beer for
Seriously, what would such a Òv6Ó look like?
It better not be under any 1 set of CIO-typesÕ control.
If we make that same mistake again, of creating another I2 or NLR under another name,
we might as well all go home and call it quits.
So I think itÕll be a Different Animal.
No central control, built by the top Rons tossing lines to each other.  The original Quilt-net vision.
Guess what?  This is already happening for research waves.
Of course, the independent Quilt management committee has officially disavowed this approach <for now>.
A source of low-cost non-I2 non-NLR non-Level 3 10G lambdas from a vendor like Qwest would facilitate this.

IÕm sure a lot of people, not just I2 and NLR folks, donÕt like this idea much
ÒThatÕs fine for research waves, like MAX can toss lambdas west to CHI, north to NYC, and south to ATL, and string vlans hither and yonÓ
ÒBut what about the IP network?Ó
WhoÕs going to pay for a common set of routers
run by smart folks like our friends at IU
for reliable/consistent service & advanced functionality.
I donÕt really have the answer to that.
Lack of consistent routing policy/platforms could be a disaster.  Might try something poorly conceived and fail.
Plus throwing away all the work done by I2 and NLR.
Will RONs have the smarts/courage to meet this challenge?  I donÕt see much alternative.

Thanks!
Any volunteers for talks next time?
Discussion topics youÕd like to hear?
magorian@maxgigapop.net