IPv4 address length technical design

Wed Oct 3 22:59:20 UTC 2012

On Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:49:56 -0500, Jimmy Hess said:

>   (1)   Stopped  mixing the Host identification and the Network
> identification into the same bit field;   instead  every packet gets a
> source network address,  destination network address, AND  an
> additional  tuple of       Source host address,   destination host
> address;  residing in completely separate address spaces,  with  no
> "Netmasks",  "Prefix lengths", or other comingling of  network
> addresses and host address spaces.

Where's Noel Chiappa when you need him?

>   (2)  The new protocol will use  variable-length address for the Host
> portion, such as  used in the addresses of CLNP,

This also was considered during the IPv6 design phase, and the router
designers had a collective cow, as it makes ASIC design a whole lot more
interesting.  And back then, line speed was a lot lower than it is now...

Not saying it can't be done - but you're basically going to have to do CLNP
style handling at 400Gbits or 1Tbit.  Better get those ASIC designers a *lot*
of caffeine, they're gonna need it...

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