5M prefixes in the core [was: Re: [ppml] [address-policy-wg] Those pesky ULAs again ]

In a message written on Wed, May 30, 2007 at 11:03:52AM -0400, Thomas Narten wrote:
> > Today we think of a 5,000,000 prefix Internet as an impossibility.
> > No hardware could ever do that.  However, 20 years on I'm not sure
> > a 5 million route Internet will be surprising to anyone.
> 
> Who is the "we" you refer to above/

A number of operators keep standing up at ARIN meetings and telling
us that if the IPv6 Internet had the same number of routes as the
IPv4 Internet (e.g. ~200k) that the world would end.  While I'm
making a bit of an assumption, if we can't support that rate, how
would we ever get to 5M in 20 years?

> Actually, quite a few people are worried that a 5M prefix Internet is
> a possibility. There are also debates (i.e., no consensus) that when
> that happens, routers will actually be able to cope with the load in
> practice.

I have no worry.  1 order of magnitude growth in 20 years is way
below the rate computing power and bandwidth are increasing.  Heck,
I think a 50 million entry table in 20 years is well within the
advances in hardware we will see in that time.

> Glad to see you are thinking of an lifespan of more than just a few
> years. Indeed, I think many are thinking of even longer time frames.

Which is excellent.  I think a 50-100 year planning window may be
pushing the limits of what we can achieve, but I'm all for trying!

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request at tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org
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