a multihomed net

Tue Oct 22 06:40:12 UTC 1996

  I was just thinking (dangerous, I know) and wondering how much extra paths to a known
prefix affected the size of the routing tables under BGP.  More specifically, under
Cisco's implementation of BGP.  The trend seems to be toward everyone multihoming for
1) stability/fault tolerance (yes, I know it's only really fault tolerant if you have
separate paths and etc, but thats not the point - the trend is) and 2) shorter paths
(hop counts) to disparate net.places.  The hierarchial model of the net with 
a few big providers at the top with smaller and smaller providers underneath until you
get to the the base customer is just not where we're headed (IMHO).  I think we're headed
more toward a fully connected graph of AS's (though we may never get there, of course -
probably an asymptotic approach).  

  So my question is, how will current routers (and routing technology)  handle this?  
    well?  not well?

  If all the ASs in existance were to suddenly peer with each other, what would happen?
    would BGP explode?  Massive CPU crunch?  What effect would route flaps then have?

  Stumbling blindly through the fog,

     --Zachary