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.
Software based routers (e.g. Cisco 7200 series) have been used as border routers for many years - this is hardly anything new. The question you should ask is probably: Can such a router handle a full link's worth of DDoS using minimum sized packets? The answer, of course, depends on your link capacity, the router itself, features enabled (ACLs, QoS, ...) etc. There are quite a few people using Quagga based boxes running Linux or FreeBSD as border routers - this is a possible solution too, giving you more bang for the buck than a traditional software based router from the big vendors. Make sure you have enough expertise for the relevant OS and routing software available. Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug@nethelp.no