Juniper Networks Warrior

Chapter 10. A Survivable Internet Solution for a Fully Distributed Network

Any engagement is a study in trial and error, or even trials and errors. Network warriors know that not every battle is won, and that when setbacks are encountered, you do not quit. For every option that fails, a lesson is learned that can be used to come to a successful conclusion. For this engagement, the tribe suffered its losses, but in the end combined portions of each of the failures were used to solve the client’s problem.

The problem here was to provide survivable Internet access for a client that had deployed a fully distributed network infrastructure. The problem was solved after two OSPF-based solutions were explored (and discarded) and a static routed solution was tested and deployed. While each of the solutions was technically feasible, Layer 8 of the protocol stack (“politics”) raised its ugly head and thwarted the first two options. In the end, the solution that was acceptable from a technical standpoint and a political standpoint was one of the most simple as well. It is amazing how often the KISS principle shows up.

Original Network Architecture

A simplification of the original network topology is shown in Figure 10-1; it includes the addressing information and the major connectivity devices. For obvious security reasons, the actual network topology, site names, and addresses have been changed. I’ll refer to the company as King Capital. King Capital operates a number of geographically dispersed ...