Dig this...
Customer with a 2B account. Configured on an ASCEND P50 for
"min channels = 2", "max channels = 2".
Now, am I dense, or should this configuration:
1) Bring up both channels.
2) Ping-pong transmit packets between them so BOTH see traffic upbound.
3) Not run afoul of the idle timer on either channel (unless both go
idle, in which case it hangs up both lines).
It doesn't work. It *appears* that the upbound traffic only goes out ONE
channel from the P50 to the network; the other appears to be idle! Since
we have the PM3 idle timeout set to 20 minutes, and most traffic in an ISP
environment to customers is DOWNBOUND, after 20 minutes channel #2 drops --
and then NEVER gets restored until the call is terminated and re-initiated
by the customer! EVEN IF THE CUSTOMER PLASTERS THE FIRST CHANNEL, the
Pipeline won't re-establish the second channel connection!
ASCEND's answer to the customer? You have to use MP+ (their proprietary
nonsense) or BACP to get the behavior you want.
My response? That's BADLY braindead. Its TRIVIALLY SIMPLE to measure
the throughput on a sync line, and bring up the second channel ON YOUR OWN
when the threshold is reached WITHOUT the central-site hardware dialing
you or using BACP-anything.
Further, if I say NAIL BOTH CHANNELS I know damn well what I want, I meant
what I said, and I want both channels USED all the time!
I will note with some interest that the Farallon Netopia does the "right
thing" and doesn't suffer from this. You can keep a 2B call up until
hell freezes with that box and it won't drop a channel -- but it ping-pongs
the data upbound (you can see it on the blinken-lights) so both channels see
traffic.
Anyone got ideas? Or is this just something that I have to tell the customer
they should go beat their vendor about the ears until they fix it -- or
perhaps the fix is to return the ASCEND and get a Farallon product that
knows how to do this stuff correctly....
Talk about people not playing nice in an open systems environment.....
---- Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - The Finest Internet Connectivity http://www.mcs.net/~karl | T1's from $600 monthly to FULL DS-3 Service | 99 Analog numbers, 77 ISDN, http://www.mcs.net/ Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| NOW Serving 56kbps DIGITAL on our analog lines! Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | 2 FULL DS-3 Internet links; 400Mbps B/W Internal