[AusNOG] NBN Co Layer 2 vs. Layer 3 Services

[Paul Brooks]

On 22/04/2010 5:11 PM, Daniel Hooper wrote:
>
> "but will be forced to travel all the way out to an interconnect point 
> and through RSP1, then be handed over to RSP2"
>
> That's just the nature of the beast, if factory #1 was really serious 
> about exchanging large volumes of traffic to the premises next door 
> wouldn't they be eligible to purchase a layer2 style of service from 
> an RSP? I haven't seen any thing so far that mandates that providers 
> must only sell layer3 services. Surely the RSP could apply for a VLAN 
> to be mapped between port X on customers ONT and mapped to another 
> port on another ONT?
>

NBNCo won't sell a VLAN directly between two ONT ports to build an 
end-to-end service. NBNCo's services are all  ONTport-to-POI.

But I agree thats the nature of the beast, its exactly what happens now 
when two locations are connected to two different providers - or even to 
the same provider. If factory#1 was serious about large data volumes to 
a location nearby they would find a local carrier to dig some fibre or 
establish a microwave link directly between the two buildings, and 
bypass the NBN connection. Just because a building is connected to the 
NBN doesn't mean thats ALL they can be connected to.

The argument is an example to highlight a concept of "efficiency". My 
belief is that strict efficiency in terms of shortest-geographic-path is 
a concept that is largely out the window and immaterial. We don't care 
about efficient routing of telephone calls these days, its all about 
least-cost not shortest-path - I can call the person next door and have 
the call routed around the planet a couple of times, and I don't care as 
long as the audio quality is OK.  With ubiquitous fibre infrastructure 
leading to almost unlimited bandwidth in practical terms, the only 
effect from non-shortest-path traffic flows that the end-user expriences 
is a few millisecs of latency - if this causes capacity issues for the 
provider, than the provider has to find a way around it by finding a 
more optimal path, or possibly finding a longer but cheaper path so they 
can afford more capacity - either way, the argument that  traffic 
between two locations that are next door to each other shouldn't ever 
flow beyond the end of the street doesn't hold in my view.

Paul.

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