> Yes, but unreachability is basically only a problem for those who have
> failed to design and plan for it. You can engineer for unreachability.
> You're a lot more screwed if we start talking about government mandates
> and the contents of your zone.I meant to ask in my original posting:
http://volokh.com/2010/06/13/32843/
What happens when the US shuts down part of its part?
Depends on what part it shut down, of course.
But what are the available boundaries for the parts in question?If we don't know what will be ordered shutdown and what the boundaries
of the shutdown area will be are there engineering concerns that can not
be foreseen and economically provided-for?
I think it's a great question, and of course there are all sorts of
concerns. For many operators here, though, this may be a political
question more than an engineering question: if the government has
the power, and comes and tells your management to do X, are they going
to comply, or not?
It is probably more operationally relevant to be concerned with how to
cope with the more general problem of partitioning, because it's also
possible that one day Elbonia will decide to filter out the US, and we
may actually be able to engineer solutions that cope with that. A
network that has planned ahead and is able to respond to such issues
has more of a chance to be able to successfully cope with other
partitioning issues, regardless of whether they're government-imposed
or just a peering spat.
From that point of view, I believe my initial answers to you make a
great deal of sense.
... JG