CONTENT TYPE
Hedge 138: The Robustness Principle
Most network engineers take it as a “given” that the robustness principle is the “right way” to build protocols and networks—”be conservative in what you send, and liberal in what you receive.” The idea behind the robustness principle is that implementations should implement specifications as accurately as possible, but they should also accept malformed and otherwise erroneous data, process the best they can, and drop the bits they cannot process. This should allow the network to operate correctly in the face of defects and other failures. A recent draft, draft-iab-protocol-maintenance/, challenges the assumptions behind the robustness principle. Join Tom and Russ as they discuss the robustness principle and its potential problems.
Privacy for Providers
While this talk is titled privacy for providers, it really applies to just about every network operator. This is meant to open a conversation on the topic, rather than providing definitive answers. I start by looking at some of the kinds of information network operators work with, and whether this information can or should be considered “private.” In the second part of the talk, I work through some of the various ways network operators might want to consider when handling private information.
Hedge 137: Old FRR Defects
Zero-day defects exist in every projects, whether they are open or closed source. John Fraizer and Alistair Woodman join Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss an old defect John found in the FRR code, the history of this defect, and the problems inherent in finding and resolving defects in large, diverse code bases.
Hedge 136: The IPv6 ULA Mess
IPv6’s designers built the concept of Unique Local Addresses, or ULAs, into the addressing architecture to make network address translation unnecessary for IPv6 deployments. As with many other plans of mice and men, however, the unintended consequences of what is a good idea tend to get in the way. Nick Buraglio joing Eyvonne Sharp, Tom Ammon, and Russ White to discuss the many problems of IPv6 ULA, why it isn’t practical in most network deployments, and the larger question of how standards bodies sometimes fail to consider the unintended consequences of a good idea.
Hedge 135: Simon Sharwood, China, and IPv6
Over the last several years various Chinese actors (telecom operators and vendors) have been pushing for modifications to IPv6 to support real-time applications and other use cases. Simon Sharwood wrote an article over at the Register on their efforts and goals. While this effort began with big IP, moved into new IP, and has been called many other names. These efforts are being put forward in various venues like the IETF, the ITU, etc. Simon Sharwood, who writes for the Register, joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss these efforts.
Here is a recent article where Simon is discussing these issues.
BGP Intra-AS and Route Reflection
Since BGP is designed to be an overlay protocol, it doesn’t really have good mechanisms for carrying routes within an autonomous system. In this video, I’m discussing some of the techniques developed to carry routes within an AS, including route reflectors.
Hedge 134: Ten Things
One of the many reasons engineers should work for a vendor, consulting company, or someone other than a single network operator at some point in their career is to develop a larger view of network operations. What are common ways of doing things? What are uncommon ways? In what ways is every network broken? Over time, if you see enough networks, you start seeing common themes and ideas. Just like history, networks might not always be the same, but the problems we all encounter often rhyme. Ken Celenza joins Tom Ammon, Eyvonne Sharp, and Russ White to discuss these common traits—ten things I know about your network.