Allowed Quote by Jon Postel
“The routers get involved in this and they know that on the path between this router and that router a certain percentage of the bandwidth is reserved to these things and a certain percentage of it is allowed on a first come first served basis.”
About This Quote
Network routers allocate bandwidth, reserving portions for certain tasks while leaving the rest for opportunistic use.
In simple terms: Routers split bandwidth between reserved and first‑come‑first‑served traffic.
Key Takeaway
Design systems that balance guaranteed and flexible resources.
Themes
networking
resource management
efficiency
fairness
Mood
analytical
technical
Type
technical
educational
When to use this quote
- data centers
- internet service
- cloud computing
- traffic engineering
Key Concepts
bandwidth allocation
QoS
Questions to Reflect On
- How should you decide which traffic gets reserved?
- What are the risks of a purely first‑come‑first‑served model?
A Different Perspective
Reserved bandwidth can cause underutilization if not dynamically adjusted.
