[j-nsp] policer useless

[dave o'leary]

At 06:45 PM 9/12/2002 +0200, Daniel Roesen wrote:
>On Thu, Sep 12, 2002 at 04:47:30PM +0200, Markus =C5berg (LMF) wrote:
> > I connected a Smartbits(R) with 2 fastethernet cards to a M10 with
> > a fastethernet PIC.
> >
> > Blasting 100Mbit/s small (64 byte) *raw IP* packets thru the box i
> > get pretty accurate results.
>
>We're talking about TCP performance, not connectionless datagram
>throughput. You're measuring the wrong thing. :-)

I believe that Markus has measured whether the policer (which is
apparently what Blaz had configured on his box) does indeed police
traffic to the expected levels.  Markus indicates that it seems to
do so.  I'm not sure this is an issue or "right" or "wrong", but rather,
how should Blaz configure his box to get the desired behavior.
Clearly, as you have pointed out, behavior of a TCP connection
when policed is different from the behavior when it is shaped (or
"queued" per some of the other messages in this thread).
Claiming that policing is completely useless is certainly within
your rights, however there are plenty of service providers who
choose to police traffic (whether using routers, frame relay switches,
etc.) and of course, lots of TCP traffic flows through these devices.

                                         dave