Russ White
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Russ White
HTIRW: NOG World
NOGs and other NOGs, they sit on logs… Looking at the Internet from the outside, it might almost seem like it runs just on standards bodies, vendors, and providers. But these three groups, as important as they are, really only scratch the surface of the sinews that keep the Internet operating. At the core of […]
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The post HTIRW: NOG World appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
Cisco-OpenDNS May Upset Networking Ecosystem
Cisco's acquisition of security provider OpenDNS is a symptom of the vendor's transition to services that could have wide partner and competitor repercussions.HTIRW: That Big Number Database in the Sky
As we come close to ending this rather long running series on how the Internet really works (because I’m certain you’re about bored of this series, and ready for me to talk about something else!), I’d like to discuss three more topics I think are really important to the Internet’s operation on a day to […]
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The post HTIRW: That Big Number Database in the Sky appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: Internet Exchange Points
Most providers — transit, edge, and content — are pretty obvious to the various users of the Internet. Users interact with edge and content providers every day, and transit providers have such large names in the industry that they’re often the subject of news and other articles. But who actually connects all these different providers […]
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The post HTIRW: Internet Exchange Points appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
Geneve
One of the various problems we face in the data networking world is the absolute plethora of tunneling technologies we have available. Going way back to the beginning, there was SNA, GRE, IP-in-IP, and a host of others. In the midterm was have MPLS (though some will argue this isn’t a tunneling protocol — but […]
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The post Geneve appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (3)
Let’s take one look back over the IETF before we move on to the next piece of the infrastructure of the ‘net. Why does it take so long for a single document to get through the process, and result in a standard? There is, of course, the formal process, which requires the document to proposed, […]
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The post HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (3) appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
RFCs You Should Know: 5218
Quite often RFCs in the “earlier days” discussed not only process but also design. Looking back now, considering the complexity of the network engineering world, these RFCs might seem even a little trite. But these “architectural RFCs” often still carry thoughts and records of experience that are important, even if they aren’t so much followed […]
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The post RFCs You Should Know: 5218 appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (2)
Last time we talked about a few things that go wrong in the IETF — this time we’ll talk about a few more things that can go wrong. Boiling the Ocean. Engineers, as a rule, like to solve problems. The problem is we often seem to think the bigger the problem, the better the solution. […]
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The post HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (2) appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (1)
We’ve talked a little about the structure of the IETF, and the process a draft follows when moving from submission to draft to RFC… The perennial question is, though — why does it take so long? Or, perhaps — why is the IETF so broken? Let me begin here: the IETF is a human organization. […]
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The post HTIRW: Reality at the Mic (1) appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
NAT, Security, and Repeating Myself
In a former post I pointed out that we need to think of obscurity as a tool in network security — that we shouldn’t try to apply rules that are perfectly logical in terms of algorithms to networks as a system. While I’m not normally one to repeat myself, this topic needs a little more […]
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The post NAT, Security, and Repeating Myself appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: The IETF Draft Process
In our deeper investigations of the IETF as a “sample standards body” in this (apparently forever running) series on how the Internet really works, let’s take a look at the IETF standards process. This is a rather sanitized, informal review — I may leave out some steps, or describe things in a way that doesn’t […]
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The post HTIRW: The IETF Draft Process appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
BGPSEC: Leaks and Leaks
This is the final post in my series on BGPSEC — I will probably follow this up, at some point, with a couple of posts on some alternatives to BGPSEC, and the larger issue of the evolution of BGP. Basic Operation Protections Offered Replays, Timers, and Performance Signatures and Performance In this final post, I […]
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The post BGPSEC: Leaks and Leaks appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: IETF Organizational Structure
So far, we’ve looked at the naming system, routing, and policy in our travel through “internet land.” Last time, we took a quick look at some of the various organizations that create the standards that make the internet work. This time I’m going to start looking in more depth at one specific standard body, or […]
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The post HTIRW: IETF Organizational Structure appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
BGPSEC: Signatures and Performance
BGPSEC is a set of BGP extensions being developed by the SIDR working group of the IETF to improve the security of the Internet’s routing infrastructure. So far in this series, we’ve looked at the basic operation of BGPSEC, the protections offered, and then the first set of performance issues — how do we prevent […]
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The post BGPSEC: Signatures and Performance appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
BGPSEC: Replays, Timers, and Performance
Let’s return to our simple four AS network to look at a number of issues with BGPSEC — the bits you won’t often hear discussed in just about any forum. Assume, for a moment, that AS65000 advertises some route, say 192.0.2.0/24, to AS65001, and not to AS65002. For whatever reason, a few days pater, the […]
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The post BGPSEC: Replays, Timers, and Performance appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
HTIRW: Standards Bodies
(yes, I know, it’s been a while… But it’s time to get back to this series) Up to this point in this series, we’ve been discussing the more technical aspects of how the Internet really works. Now I want to shift gears a little, and talk about some of the more political aspects — standards […]
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The post HTIRW: Standards Bodies appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
BGPSEC: Protections Offered
In my last post on the subject of BGPSEC, I explained the basic operation of the modifications to BGP itself. In this post, I’ll begin looking at some of the properties — both good and bad — of these extensions to BGP. To being, we’ll look at the simple network illustrated here, and see what […]
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The post BGPSEC: Protections Offered appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Russ White.
BGPSEC: Basic Operation
I’m going to take a little break from my other two series to inject a short series on BGPSEC. I’ll return to HTIRW and RFCs you need to know shortly. BGPSEC is a set of standards currently under consideration in the IETF to secure BGP beyond the origin AS – in other words, to secure […]
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The Routing Resilience Manifesto
If you run BGP in your network, you need to think about BGP security. It might not seem like it’s important if you’re not a provider, but two points to consider: First, if you’re connected to the Internet, making certain your little corner of the Internet is secure is important Second, no matter where you […]
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HTIRW: Provider Peering and Revenue Streams (Part 2)
This is a continuation from last week’s post on provider peering streams. Second Example: Customer to Noncustomer Assume traffic is coming in from A and is destined to M. How can AS64501 maximize revenue stream in this situation? There is only place to make money (the [A,C] link), and there is one place where its […]