a radical proposal (Re: protocols that don't meet the need...)

Edward B. DREGER eddy+public+spam at noc.everquick.net
Wed Feb 15 17:13:28 UTC 2006


MA> Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:31:56 +0100 (CET)
MA> From: Mikael Abrahamsson

MA> The current routing model doesn't scale. I don't want to sit 5 years from
MA> now needing a router that'll handle 8 million routes to get me through the
MA> next 5 years of route growth.
MA> 
MA> PI space for multihoming and AS number growth is a bad thing for scaling and
MA> economics, however you look at it.

I'm going to suggest something horribly radical (or nostalgic, 
depending how long one has been in the industry): inter-provider 
cooperation.

Let's examine _why_ the routing table might become large.  Lots of 
smaller players multihoming, yes?  Say two million small businesses 
multihome using SBC and Cox.  Must we have two million global ASNs and 
routes?

Of course not.  Let SBC and Cox obtain a _joint_ ASN and _joint_ address 
space.  Each provider announces the aggregate co-op space via the joint 
ASN as a downstream.

This is very similar to a downstream using a private ASN to connect to 
one upstream in two different locations.  i.e., transit provider uses 
the same ASN for all such customers, and certainly needn't pollute the 
global table with longer prefixes.

We're dealing with _one_ routing policy: hand it to Cox, or hand it to 
SBC.  Why explode it into two million "different" policies?

Look at MPLS.  It essentially hunts down congruent or similar routing 
policies, slaps a tag on the packet, and routes based on that.  Why not 
explore options that get it right and coalesce from the get-go?

Note also that this is totally op-community.  No new protocols required.  
It can be done today without forklifts.

I thought I proposed this at 35.  Maybe that was one of the open mic 
sessions where time ran out...


Eddy
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