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News

Chi-Nog 09 Agenda Posted

CHI-NOG 09 Agenda Published

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xISP

Cord Cutters and the ISP

Dish Network (Stock: Dish) reported a net loss of 334,000 pay TV subscribers (compared to net additions of 39,000 one year ago), which factors out to 386,000 satellite subscribers lost and 52,000 new Sling TV subscribers. The company finished out the quarter with 12.32 million total pay TV subscribers, including 9.90 million Dish TV subscribers and 2.42 million Sling TV subscribers.

One of the key takeaways is Dish lost traditional satellite customers but picked up additional Sling TV customers. These are IPTV type customers.  If your network isn’t supporting video, it needs to.

https://www.fiercevideo.com/cable/dish-drops-386k-satellite-subs-but-adds-52k-sling-tv-customers-q4

Categories
FlashBriefing

MTIN Flash briefing January 31 2019

We are trying out something new.  This is aimed at a quick burst of information for ISPs, network operators, and those involved in supporting networks.  These “flash briefings” are aimed to be 2-5 minutes in length.  iTunes and other subscriptions coming shortly.

In this flash briefing:

Cisco is discontinuing BGPmon in favor of their Crosswork Network InsightsFaq is available here. Read the official announcement

ISPs, the deadline for form 477 is March 8th.

Click to access WhoMustFileForm477.pdf

WispAmerica 2019 -March 19th-21st http://www.wispa.org/WISPAMERICA

Mikrotik MUM April 4th-5th https://mum.mikrotik.com/2019/US/info/EN

Listen. Itunes Subscription coming soon.

Categories
BGP Networking

Network Collective: BGP Optimal Route Reflection

https://thenetworkcollective.com/2018/11/st-bgp-optimal-route-reflection/

Categories
Cambium Networking WISP

Cambium and Management vlans

Just a quick diagram on how to separate Management traffic on an ePMP network. The aps and CPE are in bridge mode in this setup. The Cambium CPE are in bridge mode with CNPilot routers doing PPPoE, which the ISP has control over as a managed router.

Our netonix has a tagged vlan for the management interface and an untagged vlan for the customer (PPPoE traffic).

The mikrotik router is trunked to the netonix on port 12 to complete this setup.

Categories
WISP

One Way to setup your Baicells POP

One way to setup a Baicells POP using VLANs and a VPLS tunnel.  The tunnel is to save Public IP space if you so desire.

Categories
WISP WISPA xISP

From The Archives – WISPAMERICA 2013 Presentation

This is a presentation I did in 2013 about layers and how to apply them to your network.  Much of this still applies today. This is a very basic overview on how to look at your network in the 3 layer Cisco model.

presentation

Categories
BGP Data Center Networking WISP xISP

Some Random Visio diagram

Below, We have some visio diagrams we have done for customers.

This first design is a customer mesh into a couple of different data centers. We are referring to this as a switch-centric design. This has been talked about in the forums and switch-centric seems like as good as any.

This next design is a netonix switch and a Baicells deployment.

Design for a customer
Categories
Networking xISP

Where does Trill and VXLAN fit in your strategy?

As networking trends yo-yo between layer-3 and layer-2,  different protocols have emerged to address issues with large layer-2 networks. Protocols such as Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL), Shortest Path Bridging (SPB), and Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) have emerged to address the need for scalability at Layer2.   Cloud scalability, spanning tree bridging issues, and big broadcast networks start to become a problem in a large data center or cloud environment.

To figure out if things like TRILL is a solution for you, you must understand the problem that is being addressed by TRILL. The same goes for the rest of the mentioned protocols. When it boils down to it the reason for looking at such protocols is you want high switching capacity, low latency, and redundancy.  The current de facto standard of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) simply is unable to meet the needs of modern layer2 networks.  TRILL addresses the problem of STP’s ability to only allow one network path between switches or ports.  STP prevents loops by managing active layer -2 paths.   TRILL applies Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System protocol (IS-IS), which is a layer3 routing protocol translated to Layer 2 devices.

For those who say TRILL is not the answer things like SPB also known as 802.1aq, and VXLAN are the alternatives. A presentation at NANOG 50 in 2010 addressed some of the SPB vs TRILL debate. This presentation goes into great detail on the differences between the two.

The problem, which is one most folks overlook, is that you can only make a layer 2 network so flat.  The trend for a while, especially in data centers, is to flatten out the network. Is TRILL better? Is SPB better? The problem isn’t what is the better solution to use.  What needs to be addressed is the design philosophy behind why you need to use such things.   Having large Layer2 networks is generally a bad idea. Scaling issues can almost always be solved by Layer-3.

So, and this is where the philosophy starts, is TRILL, SPB, or even VXLAN for you? Yes, but with a very big asterisk. TRILL is one of those stop-gap measures or one of those targeted things to use in specific instances. TRILL reduces complexity and makes layer-2 more robust when compared to MLAG. Where would you use such things? One common decision of whether to use TRILL or not comes in a virtualized environment such as VSPHERE.

Many vendors such as Juniper, have developed their own solutions to such things.  Juniper and their Virtual Chassis solution do away with spanning tree issues, which is what TRILL addresses.   Cisco has FabricPath, which is Cisco’s proprietary TRILL-based solution. Keep in mind, this is still TRILL.   If you want to learn some more about Fabric Path this article by Joel Knight gets to the heart of Fabric path.

Many networks see VXLAN as their upgrade path.  VXLAN allows layer 2 to be stretched across layer 3 boundaries. If you are a “Microsoft person” you probably hear an awful lot about Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) which can encapsulate a layer two frame into IP.

The last thing to consider in this entire debate is how does Software Defined Networking (SDN) play into this. Many folks think controllers will make ECMP and MLAG easy to create and maintain. If centralized controllers have a complete view of the network there is no longer a need to run protocols such as TRILL.   The individual switch no longer makes the decision, the controller does.

Should you use Trill, VXLAN, or any of the others mentioned? If you have a large Layer-2 virtualized environment it might be something to consider.  Are you an ISP, there is a very small case for running TRILL in anything other than your data center. Things such as Carrier Ethernet and MPLS are the way to go.

Categories
Uncategorized

12 days of netmas

On the first day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
A spanning tree instance

On the second day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the third day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the fourth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the fifth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the sixth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the seventh day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the eighth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
8 packets a flowing
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the ninth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
9 fans a cooling
8 packets a flowing
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the tenth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
10 gigs a flowing
9 fans a cooling
8 packets a flowing
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the eleventh day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
11 BGP Peers
10 gigs a flowing
9 fans a cooling
8 packets a flowing
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance

On the twelveth day of netmas
my true love sent to me:
12 routers on a stick
11 BGP Peers
10 gigs a flowing
9 fans a cooling
8 packets a flowing
7 OSPF areas
6 switches switching
5 poe injectors
4 subnet masks
3 sfps
2 ethernet ends
and a spanning tree instance