[atlas] Are there plans for faster than 1G anchors?

Hi Bryan,

On 17/04/13 19:40 , Bryan Socha wrote:
> We're finding it harder and harder to support the 1G nic interface on
> the anchors.   We'd love to add more but would need a 10g port at
> minimum (25G or 40G would also work).   
> 
> Are there any plans to update them for networks that can't easily
> support a 1G nic?

Interesting question. :) I can see the logic of this from the
perspective of some operators. However, we are not considering adding
10GE or higher port speeds to the RIPE Atlas anchors. The reasons for
this are manyfold:

- Though this would possibly be technically feasible with some Soekris
models that have PCI Express capabilities, there would be a non-trivial
and as yet undefined amount of engineering work involved for us to make
this an operationally supported option.
- By expanding hardware support options we increase the burden on our
limited-resourced operational team.
- The current GE port speed already is a significant overkill for a
measurement network that is not designed to do capacity/throughput
tests. As a side note: we also have a strong requirement from many of
our anchor hosts in other regions of the world to keep the actual
bandwidth requirements for the anchors in the order of kilobits per
second or less.
- Our assessment is that most of our anchor hosts (current and
prospective) will be able to support 1G somewhere in their networks for
at least the next 3-5 years.

I hope this clarifies our reasoning and addresses your question.

Kind regards,
Romeo




> Bryan Socha
> Network Engineer
> DigitalOcean
>