Open source traffic shaper experiences? (was Re: looking for a review of traffic shapers)

[andrew () vivalibre com]

Note: delurk.

Some of the commercial traffic shaping devices reviewed here are tens of 
thousands of dollars.  For a smaller ISP (i.e. less than a DS3 of 
aggregate upstream bandwidth), that kind of expense doesn't make sense--
but the need to control bandwidth consumption is still an issue.

For example, I work at an ISP in Central America where bandwidth costs are 
quite high.  A 2Mbps dedicated link typically sells for over $4,000 per 
month.  One can imagine how important it is to be able to throttle the 
top P2P talkers in this kind of environment.

Is anyone on the NANOG list aware of a disk-less Linux solution? One might
imagine a Knoppix-like bootable CD image (perhaps CD-RW, so config files
could be updated) that would turn an inexpensive Linux box into an
effective traffic shaping device, using tools like CBQinit, MRTG/RRDTOOL,
and a Webmin-like admin interface. The closest thing to this I've seen is
ETINC's BWMGR, but that's a closed-source solution and is still somewhat
expensive.

-Andrew White


On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, William Caban wrote:

> A resume of some of the answers I have received:
>
> What's missing from (at least some) current traffic shaping appliances
> http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joe/what-shapers-need.pdf
>
> Ten Odd Strategies for Picking Numerical Values for Your Traffic Shaper
> http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joe/picking-a-shaper-policy.pdf
>
> The Case for Traffic Shaping at Internet2 Schools
> http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joe/i2-traffic-shaping.ppt
>
> Bandwidth Management Strategies and Methodologies
> http://rdweb.cns.vt.edu/~cgaylord/talks/20020507-i2bandwidth.pdf
>
> Bandwidth Managers: Going With The Flow
> http://www.bcr.com/bcrmag/2003/04/p32.asp
>
> Reviewing Packet Shaping Products
> http://www.net.cmu.edu/docs/arch/qospe-pre.html
>
> Succesful Bandwidth Management at Crnegie Mellon
> http://www.net.cmu.edu/pres/jt0803/
>
> Bandwidth Management Technologies
> http://www.etinc.com/index.php?page=bwcompare.htm
>
>
> Thanks everyone.
>
>
> -W
>
> On Mon, 2003-11-24 at 17:36, William Caban wrote:
> > I'm looking for a review/report on traffic/packet shapers products with
> > a side-by-side comparison. Did any one has a clue where I can find one
> > such report?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > -W