IXP

Fri Apr 17 23:12:20 UTC 2009

>> with the advent of vlan tags, the whole idea of CSMA for IXP networks
>> is passe.  just put each pair of peers into their own private tagged
>> vlan and let one of them allocate a V4 /30 and a V6 /64 for it.  as a
>> bonus, this prevents third party BGP (which nobody really liked which
>> sometimes got turned on by mistake) and prevents transit dumping
>> and/or "pointing default at" someone.  the IXP no longer needs any
>> address space, they're just a VPN provider.  shared-switch
>> connections are just virtual crossconnects.
> Large IXP have >300 customers. You would need up to 45k vlan tags,
> wouldn't you?

now arnold, you're spoiling a great idea.  researchers could measure the
exchnge to see if it ever fully converged (to steal a routing term).
nice paper there, and who cares about working connectivity.
</sarcasm>

randy