Is anyone out there familiar with a company called "routescience"? I caught the below press release at and wanted to find out if anyone can relay any real-world experiences with their system? It almost sounds like they are using something like a Keynote Systems performance monitoring tool to inject BGP path preference information. TIA, Irwin --- ROUTESCIENCE DEVELOPS PLATFORM TO CONTROL BGP INTERNET ROUTING RouteScience, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, unveiled plans for a unique "route controller" platform for optimizing a company's multiple ISP links by providing real-time performance measurements of paths across the Internet to end users. Using these performance metrics and customer preferences for ISP link cost, RouteScience's PathControl platform determines the best ISP path for end-users and can then automatically update the organization's edge routers with the best path routing information. The route performance measurement relies on a patent-pending closed-feedback loop system that does not use pings. Route updates are provided to the edge routers using standard Border Gateway Protocol. A large company with multiple ISPs would use the systems to route traffic to the ISP links that actually deliver the best end-to-end performance. The solution could also be used by a Tier-2/3 service provider to route traffic to multiple backbone carriers depending on cost and real- time performance metrics. The company said default BGP chooses a sub-optimal route 50% - 80% of the time, depending on the number of alternative ISP paths. Of those routes that can be improved, an alternate ISP is on average 2 times faster. RouteScience claims its system provides deep visibility into ISP performance and could fundamentally change network service agreements and pricing by moving control over Internet routing decisions to the network edge. http://www.routescience.com RouteScience, August 20, 2001