Routing System Scaling - Disaster Looming, but Medium-Term Fi xes Known

Mon Apr 2 19:54:20 UTC 2001

> From: Roeland Meyer <rmeyer at mhsc.com>
> Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 11:21:47 -0700
> To: "'smd at clock.org'" <smd at clock.org>, nanog at merit.edu
> Subject: RE: Routing System Scaling - Disaster Looming, but Medium-Term Fi xes
> Known
> 
> 
>> From: smd at clock.org [mailto:smd at clock.org]
>> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 5:59 AM
> 
>> So, there are several Deaths of the Internet which are possible:
>> 
>> -- it's too expensive to keep up with growth, so utilization
> 
>> -- we blow up on one of the scaling axes
> 
>> -- too much dynamism: poof, our memory isn't
> 
>> -- we blow up because while we can handle some of the
> 
>> -- inefficient/broken routing: we don't have the power
> 
> One observation here, PC133 RAM is getting ever cheaper, as are CPUs. If
> routers were designed around commoditized components their COGm would be
> lower. Of course, the router vendors would no longer be able to get the
> premium prices for their boxen, either.
> 

Do you think it is the CPU on the box that makes it expensive? Do you
realize that most modern routers are ASIC based? Do you realize that there
is no "off-the-shelf" hardware that can do OC192c forwarding? Cost of the
control processor CPU is not what makes the price of the router expensive.

Bora