On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 04:13:57PM -0400, Dorn Hetzel wrote:
"full time connection to two or more providers" should be satisfied when the network involved has (or has contracted for and will have) two or more connections that are diverse from each other at ANY point in their path between the end network location or locations and the far end BGP peers, whether or not the two or more connections are exposed to one or more common points of failure, as long as their are any failure modes for which one connection can provide protection against that failure mode somewhere in the other connection.
The GRE tunnel configuration being discussed in this thread passes this test. Consider the following: ISP #1 has transit connections to upstream A and B. ISP #2 has transit connections to upstream C and D ISP 1 and ISP 2 peer. Customer gets a connection to ISP #1 and runs BGP, and, over that connection, establishes a GRE tunnel to ISP #2, and runs BGP over that also. I assume your last clause requires that each connection provide protection against a failure more in the other connection (not just that one of the two provide protection against a failure mode on the other). This is satisfied. In my example: ISP #1 provides protection against ISP #2 having a complete meltdown. ISP #2 provides protection against ISP #1 losing both its upstream connections. -- Brett