Recently there have been discussions on some lists about carrier redundancy.\u00a0 I figured I would sum up some thoughts and add my own,<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world of consolidation, takeovers, and cost saving measures carrier redundancy is something one should pursue with due diligence.\u00a0 Below are some questions to know about your existing provider and any future providers. If you know this you can compare the differences between two providers.\u00a0 By knowing the answer to these questions you can add two carriers which will complement each other.<\/p>\n
1.Where does my circuit go when it leaves my equipment? Look at this from a regional perspective.\u00a0 Where does it travel in the city? Where does it travel to the next city?<\/p>\n
2.Does the provider\u2019s lines share conduit with other providers?\u00a0 They might not know this, but if you have two providers you can compare routes.\u00a0 If they are in the same conduit or in separate conduit in the same trench that might not be ideal.\u00a0 A backhoe could take both out. Do they share space inside the path with other carriers as well? If so, this could cause issues with contract disputes, not paying bills, and other business-related functions.\u00a0 Imagine if carrier A is sharing conduit with Carrier B. Carrier A goes out of business and holds the conduit contract.\u00a0 Where does that leave Carrie rB?<\/p>\n
3.Where is the entry point to the facility for the provider\u2019s circuits? If both come into the same part of the building this could be a potential weak point.\u00a0 Ideally one would enter from the north (or south or whatever) and the other would enter from a different direction.\u00a0 Also, they would travel up different conduits on different sides of the building.\u00a0 This way if something like a car crashes through the building may be one of them will be protected.<\/p>\n
4.Does the provider farm any of your circuit out to a 3rd<\/sup> party?\u00a0 This is good to know when problems arise and the finger pointing begins.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5.Use tools such as a \u201cLooking Glass\u201d to see if there are differences in routes.\u00a0 If you have two backbone providers and they have very similar routes to reach the major sites (ie. Google, Yahoo, etc.) then you could open yourself up for problems with latency and packet loss should those paths become congested of fail.\u00a0 Ideally, you want ProviderA to have different routes than ProviderB.\u00a0 This way if something outside their network is causing issues it won\u2019t have as big of an impact on your network.\u00a0\u00a0 Think of this as a road.\u00a0 You might have two roads leaving your town, but you don\u2019t want both of those roads taking the same path to get to the outside world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also look at this from your own equipment perspective. If you terminate all your circuits on a single router you are dependent on that router. Same goes for anything.\u00a0 If everything comes in over the same ladder racks that are a point of failure.\u00a0\u00a0 If all your equipment is in the same room that is a point of failure.<\/p>\n Redundancy can be as diverse as you want to. It boils down to mitigating the risk.\u00a0 If you know all the risks you can say \u201cYeah I am willing to bring my cross connects over a single ladder rack because the likely-hood of that rack failing is a risk I will take.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Visit the MTIN Family of Blogs Recently there have been discussions on some lists about carrier redundancy.\u00a0 I figured I would sum up some thoughts and add my own, In today\u2019s world of consolidation, takeovers, and cost saving measures carrier redundancy is something one should pursue with due diligence.\u00a0 Below are some questions to know about your existing provider and any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[156],"tags":[589,591,590,5],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6VLMf-CB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2391,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/bandwidth-and-the-wisp\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":0},"title":"Bandwidth and the WISP","author":"j2sw","date":"August 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This was an older article I had on my blog a few years ago.\u00a0 Much of this applies still. Bandwidth is a big hurdle most aspiring WISPs face. The reason is if high-speed alternatives were already in place, the need for a WISP would not be as great.\u00a0 Sure there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WISP"","block_context":{"text":"WISP","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/category\/wisp\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2908,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/cambium-wisp-survey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":1},"title":"Cambium WISP Survey","author":"j2sw","date":"March 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"For the second year in a row, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) around the world have shared their perspective in the WISP Survey sponsored by Cambium Networks. In answering 38 vendor-neutral questions, 721 WISPs from 47 countries, provided a comprehensive view of the global WISP industry.\u00a0 The active participation in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cambium"","block_context":{"text":"Cambium","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/category\/cambium\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":233,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/mtin-wispa-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":2},"title":"MTIN WISPA Announcement","author":"j2sw","date":"January 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"MTIN would like to announce some exciting new services for ISPs and network operators The first is Midwest Internet Exchange ( www.midwest-ix.com ) MidWest-IX has created a peering fabric we are expanding to data centers focused on the needs of WISPs and network operators such as yourself. Peering can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/category\/news-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1832,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/the-problem-with-peering-from-a-logistics-standpoint\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":3},"title":"The problem with peering from a logistics standpoint","author":"j2sw","date":"September 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many ISPs run into this problem as part of their growing pains.\u00a0 This scenario usually starts happening with their third or 4th peer. Scenario.\u00a0 ISP grows beyond the single connection they have.\u00a0 This can be 10 meg, 100 meg, gig or whatever.\u00a0 They start out looking for redundancy. The ISP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BGP"","block_context":{"text":"BGP","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/category\/networking\/bgp\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/dreamstime_xs_87568893.jpg?fit=480%2C320&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1650,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/mtin-announces-the-support-crate-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":4},"title":"MTIN announces the support crate plan","author":"j2sw","date":"July 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you a WISP who needs just a little help now and then? Need a sanity check on configuration changes? Need someone who knows your network enough to say whether you need that most recent software upgrade? \u00a0Don't have a big budget for the occasional issue? Need peace of mind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/category\/news-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1656,"url":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/mtin-is-growing-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":2393,"position":5},"title":"MTIN is growing again","author":"j2sw","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years MTIN has gone from being a computer repair shop to a dial-up ISP, to a Wireless ISP, and many things in-between. \u00a0Each time technology and market conditions change we adapt to change with it. \u00a0Our next metamorphosis is needed so we can grow into more aspects of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"MTIN\"","block_context":{"text":"MTIN","link":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/tag\/mtin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtin.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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