innocent remark

Thu Apr 28 06:21:36 UTC 1994

   19216 network entries (32713 paths) using 2945880 bytes of memory
		  Head  FreeList    Total(b)     Used(b)     Free(b)
   Processor    310824    2E96D0    13315724     7699588     5616136     

I think that it's time for folks on these mailing lists (and on the
BGP list) to stop discussing the number of routes.  It's really a
bogus metric.  Memory (at least in our implementation) is consumed
for multiple reasons: paths, the AS path table, the routing table,
etc.

I would suggest that a much better characterization of BGP memory
usage is in terms of both number of routes AND number of paths.  A
router with 20k routes and 20k paths uses a lot less memory than 20k
routes and 100k paths.  Admittedly this isn't perfect, but it's a lot
better than just one dimension.

We now return you to your normally scheduled confusion...

Tony