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

[Mark Smith]

On Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:09:51 +1000
Paul Brooks <pbrooks-ausnog at layer10.com.au> wrote:

> I've had several people bend my ear as to why they think NBNCo should be 
> layer 3/IP, coming mainly from ATUG and end-user land.
> Most of it was from several months ago before CA and NBNCo put out the 
> consultation papers outlining why we thought Layer 2 was the way to go.
> 
> I haven't heard any particularly persuasive arguments, or a clear 
> articulation of the problem that would be solved by NBNCo being 'Layer 
> 3', and I would have hoped that the consultation papers would explain 
> why NBNCo doing Layer 2 didn't mean the Layer 3 services from RSPs would 
> be limited.
> 
> For fairness, one of the arguments was around traffic efficiency - that 
> in a Layer-2 model, traffic from (say) a factory connected to one RSP 
> that wanted to get to (say) a business partner located physically right 
> next door that was connected to a different RSP would not follow an 
> optimal path across the street, but will be forced to travel all the way 
> out to an interconnect point and through RSP1, then be handed over to 
> RSP2, then have to travel all the way back to the recipient - possibly 
> hundreds of kilometres.  The guys advocating for Layer3 seem to assume 
> that NBNCo's routers would allow the traffic to cut-through and stay 
> entirely local, and would not have to hit either of the RSPs core 
> networks at all. I remain unconvinced.
> 

Presuming the NBN don't get a monopoly on installing telecommunications
infrastructure, these business people could dig a hole under their fence
and put in a private fibre link between the businesses, if latency and
throughput via the NBN/RSPs is unacceptable.

If fibre isn't feasible, radio links would probably do.

> I note Phil Dobbie has just released a Twisted Wire episode looking at 
> Layer 3, that I haven't listened to yet - Skeeve, is the Twisted Wire 
> podcast that led to your question?
> 
> P.
> 
> 
> On 22/04/2010 9:22 AM, McDonald Richards wrote:
> >
> > I've been to a couple of their workshops now and from what I can tell, 
> > NBN Co have no intention of providing a layer 3 service. Where are the 
> > other voices and are they people with clue or just opinion pieces from 
> > industry commentators?
> >
> > Macca
> >
> > *From:* ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net 
> > [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] *On Behalf Of *Skeeve Stevens
> > *Sent:* Thursday, 22 April 2010 9:03 AM
> > *To:* ausnog at ausnog.net
> > *Subject:* [AusNOG] NBN Co Layer 2 vs. Layer 3 Services
> >
> > Hey all,
> >
> > Just a quick question.
> >
> > At the moment there is a lot of talk of NBN and whether they are going 
> > to deliver Layer 2 or Layer 3 services.
> >
> > I am a little confused about what is meant by that.  In that as ISP's, 
> > I would assume that we would only want Layer 2 services from them? 
> > Just in kind of a DSL Wholesale/Ethernet wholesale/etc situation that 
> > we already have.
> >
> > Most of our ISP customers would be happy if the NBN operated just like 
> > the current wholesale models out there at the moment.  Little ISP 
> > calls his aggregator and says he wants a NBN VLAN to this address 
> > which they get from NBNCo (if directly if you are big enough and can 
> > afford to interconnect yourself), which is turned on and presented at 
> > an aggregation port... very much like taking wholesale ethernet from 
> > Pipe, Nextgen, Telstra and others today.
> >
> > This makes sense to me.
> >
> > But there is a bunch of voices saying they want the NBN Co to do Layer 
> > 3... and I am not quite sure what is meant by that?  Users buy 
> > bandwidth off the NBN Co? Turning them into a retail ISP?
> >
> > If this seems like a stupid question, I am sorry about that... but 
> > there are some voices who have access to presenting their views and 
> > are doing so about NBN should be doing Layer 3... and I am trying to 
> > find some understanding about what is actually being suggested.
> >
> > ...Skeeve
> >
> > --
> >
> > Skeeve Stevens, CEO/Technical Director
> >
> > eintellego Pty Ltd - The Networking Specialists
> >
> > skeeve at eintellego.net / www.eintellego.net
> >
> > Phone: 1300 753 383, Fax: (+612) 8572 9954
> >
> > Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 / skype://skeeve
> >
> > www.linkedin.com/in/skeeve ; facebook.com/eintellego
> >
> > --
> >
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> Paul Brooks               |         Mob +61 414 366 605
> Layer 10 Advisory         |         Ph  +61 2 9402 7355
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