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A brief history of router architecture
- mypalmike 6y agoNice article. Would be great to see some more detail with a timeframe for the progression and example routers that were known to be early implementers of each design.
- jhallenworld 6y agoThere is a book: http://franki66.free.fr/Principles%20and%20Practices%20of%20Interconnection%20Networks.pdf http://franki66.free.fr/Principles%20and%20Practices%20of%20...
- the_only_law 6y agoOk this is really cool. I had no idea content like this existed. Now if only I new anything about general computer architecture.
- briantowles 6y agoI'm also a fan of this book. Its a bit dated, but the basics are the basics. The ideas here are still widely applied in industry. Also worth checking out is the on-chip networks book from the synthesis lecture series.
- NegativeLatency 6y agoA picture’s worth a thousand words
- the_only_law 6y agoThis is why I stay on HN. This is such a niche, interesting subject that I never would have found otherwise. I’ve been looking for networking resource that go in depth on things like this, rather than just configuring and setting up equipment. Does anyone know anything like this? I’m especially interested in ones for telecommunications networking technology.
- teleforce 6y agoPlease check this book "Computer Networking : A Top-Down Approach" By Kurose & Ross. It is the best textbook on computer networking, bar none. The latest edition also covers modern networking concepts, for example Software Defined Networks (SDN). [1]https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-7th/dp/0133594149 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach...
- stack_underflow 6y agoThe Kurose/Ross textbook is also a favourite of mine. Consider checking out https://book.systemsapproach.org/index.html https://book.systemsapproach.org/index.html as a free alternative as well. The authors develop the book, as well as a few micro-books on topics like SDN, 5G, TCP congestion control, on github: https://github.com/SystemsApproach https://github.com/SystemsApproach They also have a blog with regular updates: https://www.systemsapproach.org/blog https://www.systemsapproach.org/blog And if you're curious about the motivation behind the project, they have a whitepaper: Open Source Networking Education: A Systems Approach - https://www.systemsapproach.org/uploads/4/7/7/4/47748257/sigcomm_edu.pdf https://www.systemsapproach.org/uploads/4/7/7/4/47748257/sig...
- cpach 6y agoSome pointers that might be useful: https://beej.us/guide/bgnet/ https://beej.us/guide/bgnet/ https://github.com/srsLTE/srsLTE https://github.com/srsLTE/srsLTE https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon17/presentations/open_first/Paul-Sutton-SRS-OpenFirst.pdf https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon17/presentations/open_fi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_(PBX) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_(PBX) Don’t be afraid to study the source code if you’re curious about the inner workings of a system. Best of luck!
- arman_ashrafian 6y agoCool seeing this post tonight. I just finished implementing a router for my networks class like 30 minutes ago. https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/wi21/cse123-a/project.html https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/wi21/cse123-a/project.html We use this book and its amazing: https://book.systemsapproach.org/index.html https://book.systemsapproach.org/index.html Section 3.5 covers router implementation details.
- chrisweekly 6y agoTHANK YOU for the link to book.systemsapproach.org! My "library" has been missing a resource like this. :)
- commandlinefan 6y agoWow, that’s cool - fun assignments, too. Are you allowed to share the skeleton code referenced in the descriptions?
- ngcc_hk 6y agoBut is this within or external to the router. After SNA and token ring, the Ethernet-cum-internet decentralised not just the net but also the router, switch, cable up to internet (local : ospf and ...). Not sure why it seems to talk about the router. Even a small floor network does not run on one router. But panels, switches, routers, ups ... abd that is in 1990s to now. The internal architecture ... is that so important. (Some big router-switch with many cards may be. But that is not the only one approach.)
- tony1athome 6y agoEverything that I talk about is internal to the router. Some of us think that the architecture of big routers is plenty important. It's those routers that hold up the backbone of the Internet and a whole lot of other places. Yes, you can build distributed routers. The supernode that I discuss is one such example. But that doesn't mean that you want to build it with a bunch of tiny home routers that you bought off the shelf at Fry's. You still want to start with fairly chunky building blocks, otherwise you end up suffering from a lot of inefficiencies just interconnecting things. Jonathan Turner calls this the 'small switch penalty'.
- cpach 6y agoI don’t understand all that much about the finder details of high-capacity networking, but it sure is a fascinating and important concept! The sheer volume of packets that are sent every day over the world is nothing but amazing. Welcome to Hacker News. Glad to see you here!
- tony1athome 6y agoThank you for the kind comments. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. -- Tony Li
- abraae 6y agoThe knowledge ingestion from reading your article felt like being plugged into the matrix. Great article!
- oaiey 6y agoI missed a statement about the transition between internal and external scaling. In the beginning of the article it is all about internal computer architecture, later more about deployment. What is the state of internal architecture?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tony1athome 6y agoStuck at Clos networks. Not expected to make significant further progress.
- oaiey 6y agoThanks for the article. Nice read.
- janwillemb 6y ago> In the beginning, routers were simply generic computers, with Network Interface Cards (NICs) attached to a bus. I'm a total network noob, but I do want to know more about how they work. Your article could help me, I think. But this statement already puts me off: what is a bus? I just can't picture what that's supposed to mean. Sorry if that's a stupid question. Maybe the article is just not for me and I need some primer first.
- frabert 6y ago
- macintux 6y agoAlmost 25 years ago I had the brief pleasure of working for BBN Technologies. On one memorable occasion I went to their warehouse to borrow a large external hard drive and spotted at least one IMP (effectively a router for early ARPANET). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor I hope some of that warehouse ended up in a museum at some point.