Pete,
Perhaps it is time to get rid of the legacy server approach and embrace the
same technology that countless high traffic websites and ecommerce platforms
use- Cloud. Both AWS and Azure offer no-brainer autoscaling capabilities that
make capacity, redundancy, and availability a thing of the past.
Rudy N2WQ
Sent using a tiny keyboard. Please excuse brevity, typos, or inappropriate
autocorrect.
> On Jun 12, 2018, at 9:35 AM, N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> As some may be aware, we’ve been debating for some time about whether the RBN
> should handle FT8 spots. A few weeks, ago, several prolific RBN nodes began
> spotting FT8 signals, using the combination of WSJT-X and an unreleased
> Aggregator, version 5. The purpose of this limited Alpha test was to get a
> feel for the load and other implications of carrying FT8 spots on the RBN; it
> has been very revealing.
>
> The most striking characteristic of FT8 spots is their sheer quantity. Here
> are some weekday statistics from one of the US testers:
>
> *23-May*
>
> CW 4294 14%
>
> RTTY 69 0.22%
>
> FT8 26318 86%
>
> Total 30681
>
> *24-May*
>
> CW 4370 13%
>
> RTTY 46 0.14%
>
> FT8 29298 87%
>
> Total 33714
>
> Whether due to the startling popularity of the new mode, or to the ability to
> spot stations at 22 dB below the noise level, it seems obvious that adding
> FT8 spots to our spot flow could have a huge impact on the infrastructure of
> the RBN. These numbers suggest that if only 20-30 RBN nodes added FT8 spots,
> those spots could outnumber the total CW and RTTY spots being delivered by
> the 140-150 nodes currently active on the network, doubling the total
> required throughput.
>
> We frankly don’t know whether the RBN servers will be up to the task, so we
> decided we had better find out before the fall contest season is upon us.
> Accordingly, we are taking the following steps on a Beta test basis:
>
> 1. Effective immediately, the RBN’s current spot feed
> (telnet,reversebeacon.net port 7000) will be repurposed to handle
> only CW and RTTY spots. telnet.reversebeacon.net port 7001 will be
> set up for FT8 spots only.
> 2. Operators of “retail” DX clusters are encouraged to offer the option
> of RBN spots with and without FT8 spots, as they now often give
> users a choice between spot streams with and without “Skimmer”
> spots, and to advertise when they begin to carry FT8 spots
> 3. A Beta test version of Aggregator Version 5 that can handle FT8
> spots received from WSJT-X will be made available on the RBN web
> site, along with instructions on how RBN node-ops can configure
> their nodes to spot FT8 on one or multiple bands. Note, please,
> that doing so will not interfere with your ability to continue
> spotting CW and RTTY.
>
> We will closely monitor how the RBN servers handle this new load, as more and
> more nodes begin sending FT8 spots. We also reserve the right to take steps
> as necessary to protect the core mission of the RBN, including shutting off
> the FT8 stream on major CW and RTTY contest weekends or, in an extreme case,
> discontinuing spotting of FT8 altogether. Even in a worst case scenario, FT8
> spots will continue to be carried by PSKReporter.
>
> We hope we’re not doing this in a vacuum. The RBN team has been collecting
> the views of contesters and DXers on this, and we think that we’re headed in
> the right direction. Feel free to let us know what you think of this
> experiment.
>
> 73,
>
> The RBN Team (KM3T, N4ZR, PY1NB, SV3SJ, W3OA)
>
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