fatbillybob
Steelhead
Trying to understand how that could happen...Google says....
"The claim that a single misconfigured or faulty router can trigger a cascading overload across a major network is true—it is a well-documented phenomenon in networking, though the skepticism from IT professionals highlights just how unusual and preventable it should be on a modern network.
Why It Is Technically Possible
- Control-Plane Flooding: While 1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds (about 200 to 250 requests per second) sounds tiny compared to modern internet bandwidth, those requests hit a router's control plane (its CPU), not just its data pipes. When a newly installed router malfunctions or enters a misconfigured routing loop, it can rapidly spam neighboring routers with peering requests, BGP updates, or broadcast storms, consuming their processing power.
- Legacy Hardware Bottlenecks: The FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) still relies heavily on decades-old, low-bandwidth legacy hardware and Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) switches designed for old copper lines. A sudden flood of modern IP-based connection requests can easily choke older equipment that lacks modern rate-limiting or CPU protections. [1, 2]
- Cascading Failovers: According to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, once the initial routers were overwhelmed, traffic automatically failed over to backup routers at other centers, spreading the instability across 17 of the 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers. [1, 2]
Why Some IT Professionals Are Skeptical
Network engineers online have expressed disbelief for two main reasons, both of which point to systemic design flaws rather than technical impossibility:
- Lack of Segmentation and Rate-Limiting: In any properly architected enterprise network, edge routers at a remote site (like El Dorado, Arkansas) are strictly isolated with Access Control Lists (ACLs) and control-plane policing. A remote edge device should never have the permissions or capacity to flood core national infrastructure. [1]
- Outdated Change Management: IT professionals are also stunned that live core-network cutovers were happening on a Friday afternoon—one of the busiest travel windows of the week—and that the FAA had to sift through manual paper logs for 45 minutes just to figure out which contractor crew had plugged in new hardware. [1, 2]
