Software-based Border Router

[if at xip.at (Ingo Flaschberger)]

Dear Nathanael,

> Just want to ask if anyone here had experience deploying software-based 
> routers to serve as perimeter / border router? How does it gauge with 
> hardware-based routers? Any past experiences will be very much 
> appreciated.


> I wanted to know because we've been asked if we want to assume full 
> control of the internet link (up to the router). By assuming control up 
> to the router, we still want to configure iBGP with our parent network 
> so that we can take advantage of some routes available to the parent 
> network's gateway. The saddest part is presently we do not have the 
> router to serve as our gateway this is why we are considering the use of 
> software-based routers.

I operate freebsd / quagga core routers since 4 years.

pro: cheap, tcpdump at router
con: no support, no wirespeed

expected performance: 100kpps (1,2ghz pentium m) - 700kpps (quad intel
 			core 2, 3ghz) - and much more with 10gige cards

issues: 4byte asn produced a crash at quagga (downtime 2h in 4 years)

to develop a good core-router, this means not only to setup a pc with unix 
and for example quagga, but setup an embedded unix to an appliance, for 
example with cf-cards (readonly).

Kind regards,
 	Ingo Flaschberger