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

Wed Feb 15 23:35:27 UTC 2006

Edward B. DREGER:
> ...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....

So this is a good proposal if I*(I-1)/2 < C where
C = number of ASNs issued to dual-homed customers
I = number of ASNs issued to "Transit Providers" said customers might select
from

(Note that it is bigger than that on the left if anyone, god forbid, has
*more* than two ISPs)

My guess is that even with all the consolidation in the industry, the left
side grows too quickly for this to be a good idea. (It'd probably be a great
way to finish using up the rest of V4 space, though)

And that discounts all the reasons why, short of a law forcing them to do
so, transit providers wouldn't want to do this anyway.

Matthew Kaufman
matthew at eeph.com