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Date:      Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:10:06 -0400
From:      Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net>
To:        Norberto Meijome <freebsd@meijome.net>
Cc:        freebsd-net@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Quagga as border router
Message-ID:  <20070921181006.GG1906@gerbil.cluepon.net>
In-Reply-To: <20070921214602.38487d27@meijome.net>
References:  <46F1AC0B.9040109@ibctech.ca> <46F1BDE1.8090102@gmail.com> <46F1E900.7070604@elischer.org> <46F1F376.3020609@ibctech.ca> <20070920072409.GT79417@elvis.mu.org> <20070920114839.M37866@swaggi.com> <20070921035449.GC1906@gerbil.cluepon.net> <20070921214602.38487d27@meijome.net>

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On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 09:46:02PM +1000, Norberto Meijome wrote:
> Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> wrote:
> 
> > Honestly, FreeBSD routing code is pretty poor as far as a modern router 
> > goes. If you throw enough CPU at it you can brute force your way through 
> > plenty of things, but in the context of modern commercial routers it 
> > doesn't even play in the same league (even for a software-only router).
> 
> Interesting.... what is the golden aim of software based router we should be
> trying to reach? 

Well for starters, to have a routing stack that is based on any modern 
techniques developed in the last 20 years or so. It may not even matter, 
there is plenty to FreeBSD that has absolutely nothing to do with routing, 
and if all you're doing is throw 5Mbps at a core 2 duo it really doesn't 
matter how the routing code is implemented. :) There are plenty of good 
folks who understand all of this perfectly well (for example Andre 
Oppermann), who are working hard to modernize fbsd's routing code, so I 
have full faith that it will be fixed eventually. :)

On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 10:10:06AM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> 
> Ever run into a non-existent 'olive'? Or even a J series Juniper?
> Juniper put together a very impressive software based routing system
> that is FreeBSD based.

Ever tried to use an Olive for anything more than a cute lab trick or 
route-server? Everything important is missing, because there has been no 
reason for Juniper to implement it for the FreeBSD based portion. J-series 
doesn't change any of this, all they did was implement a software emulator 
for the regular PFE so that the standard JUNOS hooks could all still be 
used in the same way. The packets still don't touch the FreeBSD part, and 
nothing Juniper has done has "improved" the routing subsystems in any 
significant way.

Mind you I'm not bashing fbsd here, I love fbsd, and Juniper's choice of 
FreeBSD for what it uses it for couldn't be any better suited. But lets 
not get carried away with generalities and perpetuating mistaken beliefs 
about what Juniper does or does not do with fbsd. Denying the reality that 
the routing code is old and antiquated doesn't help anyone, and even 
Linux has started to randomly wander in to the right direction. :P

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)



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