Added by Dave Täht on
May 7, 2011. Updated on
Jun 24, 2014.
ClosedNormalSteven Bauer
Description
Much like we have email blacklists, a malfunctioning ECN server
blacklist could be maintained, and used as a standard iptables rule, to
prevent ECN negotiation to malfunctioning hosts.
It could use ipset to check for malfunctioning hosts on connect and
rsync or wget to periodically update the file, much like how spam
sources are tracked today. It would be awesome if it could check
automagically and phone home with the data…
History
Updated by Steven Bauer on May 8, 2011.
Lets discuss… most ECN “problems” are caused by network elements of
one sort or another (routers, switches, load balancers, etc).
So a ECN server blacklist perhaps isn’t quite the right thing.
Moreover, ECN problems can be introduced by a device very close to the
client. For such a client, essentially the entire Internet would have to
be blacklisted. (This in fact was exactly the case at my lab before it
was fixed.)
Now, perhaps your point is there are servers that have topologically
close problems and those could reasonably be put on a global list so
everyone doesn’t go negotiating an ECN connection that ends up broken.
Could be fairly large list. But even here since ECN brokenness is a path
issue, the blacklist might not be correct for some clients depending
upon the network topology and the location of the problems.
Updated by Dave Täht on Jul 27, 2011.
Updated by Dave Täht on Jun 24, 2014.
This is a static export of the original bufferbloat.net issue
database. As such, no further commenting is possible; the
information is solely here for archival purposes.
So a ECN server blacklist perhaps isn’t quite the right thing. Moreover, ECN problems can be introduced by a device very close to the client. For such a client, essentially the entire Internet would have to be blacklisted. (This in fact was exactly the case at my lab before it was fixed.)
Now, perhaps your point is there are servers that have topologically close problems and those could reasonably be put on a global list so everyone doesn’t go negotiating an ECN connection that ends up broken. Could be fairly large list. But even here since ECN brokenness is a path issue, the blacklist might not be correct for some clients depending upon the network topology and the location of the problems.