[e2e] ECN, RED, dropping packets, etc

[John Kristoff]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:01:19 -0400
RJ Atkinson <rja at extremenetworks.com> wrote:

> However, our experience is that most operators do not enable those
> features (unclear to me why, possible just conservative in what they
> deploy, others here might be better informed as to why).

I have turned it on, but even as far as I've praised RED to others I
don't think I've actually had any influence on anyone else I've worked
with or spoken to that has turned it on.  Perhaps on some smaller T1
to LAN sized boxes it could be enabled on the WAN interface by default?

For not turning it on I think there are a number of potential reasons.
Some may be:

1. Links rarely if ever reach full capacity, hence no motivation to
   turn it on.

2. Opted for a dedicated packet shaping box to manage capacity and load.

3. RED and how to configure RED parameters was not well understood.

4. Box cpu/forwarding penalty hit that enabling it would incur.

Some of these are just reasons I've heard, not that they are true or
perfect.  Others are reasons I've inferred based on converstaions I've
had or overheard.

John