Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

aether.saphal.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#11

Post by saphalpdyl »

error503 wrote: post #10

> - Currently, the circuit where the user connects is arbitrarily decided by the demo user. In a real system with thousands of circuits, it'd be very difficult to properly assess which circuit the customer might connect to. When adding a new customer to a service, how does the operator decide, based on customer's location, which circuit to provide the service to ? I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but port all…

My access edge is injecting DHCP Option 82, and I'm mapping customers based on (bng_id + circuit_id + remote_id ). Say, a customer on Oakwood Drive ABC wants a service. What is the process of finding the right circuit between storing the customer's desired address and finding the best circuit to connect it to? Since, as mentioned in this thread, having connected to a wrong circuit can cause network noise for other customers too, how is the "cleanest" circuit + port assigned to a customer in a location ?

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#14

Post by error503 »

saphalpdyl wrote: post #11
error503 wrote: post #10

> - Currently, the circuit where the user connects is arbitrarily decided by the demo user. In a real system with thousands of circuits, it'd be very difficult to properly assess which circuit the customer might connect to. When adding a new customer to a service, how does the operator decide, based on customer's location, which circuit to provide the service to ? I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but port all…

My access edge is injecting DHCP Option 82, and I'm mapping customers based on (bng_id + circuit_id + remote_id ). Say, a customer on Oakwood Drive ABC wants a service. What is the process of finding the right circuit between storing the customer's desired address and finding the best circuit to connect it to? Since, as mentioned in this thread, having connected to a wrong circuit can cause network noise for other cu…

Depends on the access technology and environment. But usually there is not much choice to be made, by design. The cable or equivalent from the customer prem will go to exactly one aggregation location, and in that location, the choice of port generally doesn't matter. Among the potentially multiple cables or ports, they're all meant to be functionally the same. Maybe something is wrong with a cable or port, and that will hopefully come out in post-install testing, but there's not meant to be much of a decision to be made for commodity service like DSL or GPON (anything that'd use BNG). It's typically just going to be up to the last metre installer.

Metro ethernet services will be designed by an engineering team on a case-by-case basis, but they very rarely if ever use BNG.

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#16

Post by saphalpdyl »

error503 wrote: post #14
saphalpdyl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My access edge is injecting DHCP Option 82, and I'm mapping customers based on (bng_id + circuit_id + remote_id ). Say, a customer on Oakwood Drive ABC wants a service. What is the process of finding the right circuit between storing the customer's desired address and finding the best circuit to connect it to? Since, as mentioned in this thread, having connected to a wrong circuit can cause network noise for other cu…

Depends on the access technology and environment. But usually there is not much choice to be made, by design. The cable or equivalent from the customer prem will go to exactly one aggregation location, and in that location, the choice of port generally doesn't matter. Among the potentially multiple cables or ports, they're all meant to be functionally the same. Maybe something is wrong with a cable or port, and that…

Thank you! That answers my question. I appreciate your feedback.

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#17

Post by saphalpdyl »

nineteen999 wrote: post #13

This brings back fond memories of my first job real job in IT, as the sysadmin for a small boutique mom-n-pop ISP. This was dialup/ISDN days though (back in the late 90's). Good job!

I appreciate the compliment. I wish this type of knowledge was more easily available for the general public since it represents an integral part of modern day internet. A comment on this thread mentioned other similar ongoing project which I'm very happy about and excited to explore.

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#18

Post by saphalpdyl »

calebelac wrote: post #15

Thank you for sharing. This is really cool and way more than I accomplished as a sophomore in CS. Keep it up!

Thank you. I'm exploring more on this. Getting feedback from people here has hyped me up even more for the next step.

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#19

Post by saphalpdyl »

chaz6 wrote: post #12

Thanks for sharing! I am happy to see open-source BNG projects taking off in the last few months. These are a couple of others to look at:- https://github.com/codelaboratoryltd/bng-edge-infra https://github.com/veesix-networks/osvbng

That is awesome! I was walking almost blind folded here, making decisions based on observations, intuition, some blogs, and RFC. These projects give me something to look against as I further develop my skills.

Re: Show HN: I built an ISP infrastructure emulator from scratch with a custom vBNG

#20

Post by morphle »

You ask for feedback:

I am surprised the author did not mention or uses Software Defined Networking (SDN), Openflow or P4 (programming language for programmable switches) or the mininet simulator. He must have skipped reading the scientific literature even though he is a computer science sophomore?

I programmed and build one of the very first ISP hardware and software systems in 1987-1997 when we connected the first submarine link between the US and Europe in Amsterdam.

Google switched 50% of the internet that they owned in 2012 to SDN and Openflow [1]. I'm sure they progressed to P4 and more recent SDN controllers since then. They build the Google Fiber ISP[5] with SDN. Cloudflare also uses SDN when last I checked. A majority of the internet has moved to SDN (there are many versions.

The author built his simulation on legacy systems mostly from the Telecom world, an alternate reality distinct from the real internet and acces providers we call ISPs. Telecom systems are about surveillance and monetizing the free internet.

You can query the US ISPs on the Nanog mailing list, there are similar social media for the European, Asian and other ISPs on other continents. Beware that those are biased to Telecom as well as Tier 1 network operators and less to ISP access providers.

I do not think we should continue with the current implementation of the internet. I think we should start deploying the true internet (decentralized, peer to peer) standard and expand it to the Enernet standards of the near future: every building a router (switch) and fiber optic and electricity cables to their peers; their closest neighbors. If every building has peer connections than you are connected all the way to the internet exchanges without need for Tech Bros, Government, Telecom, ISP or Tier 1 network oligopolies. True internet [3], true Enernet [4].

[1] OpenFlow @ Google - Urs Hoelzle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLHJUfgxEO4

[2] The Future of Networking, and the Past of Protocols - Scott Shenker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHeyuD89n1Y

[3] Fiberhood White Paper https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Merik-Voswinkel/publica...

[4] Enernet - Bob Metcalfe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axfsqdpHVFU

[5] Google Fiber build "Fiberhoods" but my own Enernet ISP Fiberhood had trademarked that name before in 2011.

Post reply on HN