Colored Backgrounds

[David Gaskill]

On Mon, 13 Dec 1999 11:18:13 -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:

>Monday, December 13, 1999, 9:48:46 AM, David wrote:
>> Please could you explain what you believe the limits to be ?
>
>    Each point along the pipe has a limit.  My cable is limited not only by
>policy, but by physical connection.  Then, on top of that the connection from
>my cable provider out to my ISP has a limit.  Continue on up the pipe.  Now,
>if the routers cannot process the packets in time then there is another limit.
>There are physical limits on the cards themselves.  They can only process so
>much data at a time.  That relates to the limits on the electronic devices and
>how fast they can switch on and off.  There are limits on the memory involved.
>Routers can only hold routing tables so large before they simply don't route
>to new networks or start dropping "old" ones.  Power in each location can
>limit bandwidth because you can't just simply add more and more boxes into the
>mix infinitely.

Steve, 

Thanks for the explanation but I'm still not convinced that there are any physical 
limits  to capacity which cannot be overcome with appropriate funding. 

I am not too concerned about the link between myself and my ISP . At the 
moment it is a telephone line and I have not upgraded to ISDN because it seems 
to me that in a relatively short space of time a ASDL will make this type of 
connection obsolete.  

It seems to me that there should be no difficulty in providing an adequate pipe 
between the boxes in the exchange and my ISP. I don't see that there is any 
theoretical limit to the number of routers my ISP can install. If he runs out of 
space he can simply get another building - in fact my ISP has just done this. 

I don't know how much juice servers,  routers and their ancillaries consume but 
it can't be that much otherwise you your colleagues would get fried. I have a 
suspicion that the electricity consumed by one aluminium smelter would run 
every ISP in America if not in the world. 

It seems to me that investment in Internet businesses is predicated on the 
assumption that demand will go on rising exponentially for the foreseeable 
future. In a previous posting you mentioned that your current employer has yet 
to turn a profit. Unless demand and capacity keep on expanding he never will 
and if he doesn't ... well, who is going to run the PMmail mailing list ...? 

In a nutshell: 

If there ain't enough processing capacity buy some more. 
If there ain't enough storage capacity buy some more discs 
If the pipe ain't big enough get some more fibre optic - it's dirt cheap and getting 
cheaper. 
If there ain't enough juice get another cable. 
If there ain't enough room  get another building. 

Or am I being hopelessly naive ... 


David