ISP Nodes

[Mornincupofhate]

 I once saw technicians working in a node down the street and I've been curious how they work

 

My guess is that they just receive the fiber connection from the tier 1 nodes, and split up the connection between residents, acting as a massive router?

[KraftDinner]

2 minutes ago, Mornincupofhate said:

 I once saw technicians working in a node down the street and I've been curious how they work

 

My guess is that they just receive the fiber connection from the tier 1 nodes, and split up the connection between residents, acting as a massive router?

Correct, the node typically has a fiber link that connects it to the ISP, the node then splits the connection via multiple copper links which are way cheaper than fiber, these copper links then supply homes with connectivity. 

[Wombo]

1 hour ago, Mornincupofhate said:

 I once saw technicians working in a node down the street and I've been curious how they work

 

My guess is that they just receive the fiber connection from the tier 1 nodes, and split up the connection between residents, acting as a massive router?

Essentially yes, but don't think of them as routers, they typically don't do any real routing of traffic. Instead, think of them more as a multiplexer, taking the single, or redundant, backbone connection and splitting it up into many smaller connections, and vice-versa.

 

Routing will typically happen further into the core of the network where very large, very expensive routers live. Think as big as your fridge and millions of dollars big.

 

The only real exception here is if the ISP in question is running a Metro-E ring. In this case those aggregation device will be glorified layer 2 switches which would actually make "routing", or in this case switching, decisions based on a multitude of factors.

 

So really the short answer is yes, however the long answer is... well.. it's complicated.