nanog mailing list archives

Re: backbone routers' priority settings


From: Dean Anderson <dean () av8 com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 15:43:50 -0500

In my travels I have heard numerous times that it is a popular practice to
give ICMP and even UDP traffic a lower priority on backbone routers in
times of congestion.

The question was about the priority of ICMP.  Perhaps I erred in mentioning
that ICMP is important for congestion control. "Congestion control" is far
too vague.  Perhaps I should have used the more generic term "network
control" instead.

ICMP is an important protocol, and cannot be blocked blindly.  As a
protocol, it is not obsolete, though some functions are deprecated.  In
certain cases however, ICMP is given a high priority in the TOS field.

                --Dean


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           Plain Aviation, Inc                  dean () av8 com
           LAN/WAN/UNIX/NT/TCPIP          http://www.av8.com
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