Introducing the J2sw MTU and Encapsulation Calculator

Ever wondered what the effects of different combinations of PPPoE, GRE, and others have on the MTU of a packet? I am excited to announce the first of many J2 Network tools: the J2SW MTU and Encapsulation Calculator. You select the service MTU and the encapsulation used on the path. The calculator then works out … Read more

Why Your Traffic Didn’t go the way you expected

3 Mintue read timeJustin Wilson PacketsDownRange A common problem I run into when diagnosing route issues is traffic not going across the path it’s supposed to. An established BGP session only means the routers successfully exchanged routes. It says nothing about which route your router actually installed in the forwarding table. Let’s get into some … Read more

Understanding BGP Route Types: Full Routes vs Partial vs Default vs Customer Routes

5 minute read time.Justin Wilson j2sw.com When you configure a BGP session, one of the first questions is what routes you actually want to receive.  If you have ever filled out a questionnaire with Hurricane Electric or another transit provider, they ask you what “kind” of routes you want.  In this article, I plan to … Read more

What Is IPoE?

4 minutes read time.Many of us ISP veterans are familiar with Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), also referred to as Triple P O E.  PPPoE is showing its age.  It showed its age 15 years ago.  DHCP was the simple fix for modern networks.  It had less overhead and was simple. Now along comes IPoE. … Read more

What Is an AAU in Cellular Networks?

A little off the beaten path on this one. We are diving into a big part of a Cellular tower deployment. Many sites now use an Active Antenna Unit, or AAU. The radio and the antenna are built into the same enclosure. An AAU combines the antenna, radio transceivers, power amplifiers, and low-noise amplifiers into … Read more

How Passive Optical Networks (PON) Work

If you’ve spent any time looking into fiber Internet, you’ve probably run across terms like GPON, XGS-PON, OLT, and ONT. These are all parts of what’s called a Passive Optical Network, or PON. Most residential fiber providers use PON because it lets them connect alot of homes without having to pull a separate fiber from … Read more

Useful Python Libraries Every Network Engineer Should Know

A Python script usually spends very little time doing actual Python work. Most of the actual work comes from libraries that know how to connect to network devices and do the work. They interact with APIs. Once you understand what each library does, you can spend less time writing code and more time solving network … Read more