I have been conducting an extensive performance analysis of our global SASE deployment using Cato Networks for the past quarter, and I have identified a persistent and significant anomaly in their PoP (Point of Presence) selection algorithm. Despite having a geographically dispersed workforce with primary clusters in Frankfurt, Singapore, and São Paulo, the Cato Client and SD-WAN edge devices for a substantial portion of our Frankfurt-based users are consistently being routed through the London PoP instead of the Frankfurt PoP. This is introducing a measurable and unacceptable latency penalty.
My methodology involved simultaneous traceroutes, packet capture analysis, and real-user monitoring (RUM) data collection over a 14-day period. The benchmark for an optimal Frankfurt-to-Frankfurt path within Cato's private backbone should be ≤5ms application latency. The observed path via London consistently adds 18-22ms of round-trip time due to the unnecessary geographical hairpin. The data is summarized below:
**Observed Latency Benchmarks (95th Percentile):**
* **Expected (Direct to FRA PoP):** 4.2 ms
* **Actual (Routed via LHR PoP):** 25.8 ms
* **Latency Delta:** +21.6 ms
* **Impact:** A 15% degradation in transaction completion time for our critical ERP SaaS application.
I have ruled out local client configuration errors and PoP capacity issues through coordinated testing. The Cato Management Portal indicates the Frankfurt PoP is healthy and has available capacity. This leads me to hypothesize a flaw in the location selection logic, which may be overly reliant on BGP geolocation data rather than real-time latency probes or a misconfigured proximity table in the Cato controller.
Has anyone else in the community performed a deep-dive analysis on Cato's PoP selection mechanics and encountered similar suboptimal routing? Specifically, I am looking for insights into:
* The deterministic factors behind PoP assignment (e.g., is it purely based on the public IP's registered location?).
* Any documented methods to exert granular control, such as using custom scripts with the Cato API to "nudge" clients or sites toward a preferred PoP.
* Whether creating a more specific *Site* in the Cato management console for a subnet, as opposed to relying on the automatic *User* assignment, forces a re-evaluation of the PoP mapping.
I am preparing a formal performance report for Cato support, but empirical evidence from other large-scale deployments would be invaluable for comparison. My next step is to instrument the API to log the `connectedPop` parameter for all sessions to correlate with our ground-truth geolocation data.
— Isabella G.
Measure everything, trust only data