What is "Cold Potato Routing" on Azure
"Cold potato routing" is a term used to describe a routing strategy used by Microsoft Azure to handle network traffic. The idea behind this strategy is to route network traffic through the network path with the least amount of congestion or delay, in order to optimize network performance. This is different from "hot potato routing" which routes traffic to the nearest network egress point, regardless of congestion or delay.
In "cold potato routing," traffic is routed through the path with the lowest congestion or delay, rather than simply routing traffic to the nearest egress point. To accomplish this, Azure uses a combination of techniques, such as:
Measuring network congestion and delay at various points in the network, and using this information to make routing decisions.
Using multiple egress points for traffic, rather than relying on a single egress point, to spread the traffic load across the network.
Utilizing Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize different types of traffic, such as real-time traffic, to ensure that critical traffic is not delayed by less critical traffic.
Leveraging advanced routing algorithms that can dynamically adapt to changes in network conditions, such as changes in traffic patterns or network congestion.
By using these techniques, "cold potato routing" aims to minimize congestion and delay in the network, resulting in improved network performance for customers.
An example of how "cold potato routing" could be used in Azure is when a virtual network needs to access a storage account. Normally, if the virtual network and storage account are in different regions, the traffic would be routed through the nearest egress point, regardless of congestion or delay. However, with "cold potato routing," the traffic would be routed through the path with the lowest congestion or delay, which may not necessarily be the nearest egress point.
For example, let's say that a virtual network in the East US region needs to access a storage account in the West US region. The nearest egress point would be in the East US region, but there may be a lot of congestion on that path. "Cold potato routing" would identify a path with lower congestion through the South Central US region, and route the traffic through that path instead, resulting in faster and more reliable access to the storage account.
By using "cold potato routing" the virtual network traffic will be routed through the path with the lowest congestion or delay, resulting in improved network performance for customers accessing storage account.
Please Note :-
On Azure, "hot potato routing" is not used as a routing strategy. Azure uses "cold potato routing" as a method to optimize network performance.
Azure uses a combination of techniques such as measuring network congestion and delay at various points in the network, using multiple egress points for traffic, utilizing Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize different types of traffic, and leveraging advanced routing algorithms that can dynamically adapt to changes in network conditions.
By using these techniques, Azure minimizes congestion and delay in the network, resulting in improved network performance for customers.
It's worth noting that Azure does not refer to "Hot Potato routing" specifically, but it's a term used in general to describe a routing strategy that routes traffic to the nearest egress point, regardless of congestion or delay.