[address-policy-wg] scaling # of prefixes Re: Proposal 2011-02 moving to Last Call

On Thu, 6 Oct 2011, Dan Luedtke wrote:

> Are there no line cards with larger capacity in development? Will we 
> still be limited to 0.5M when the problem (i think it is a long term 
> problem) arises?

There are very few platforms today with a 0.5M limit, buying them even a 
few years back, would be a mistake. The most popular platforms I would say 
have a 1M or more forwarding table limit, meaning they'll do ~750k IPv4 
and 125k IP6 routes (IPv6 takes double space) or 500k IPv4 and 250 IPv6 
routes, or any mix in between.

There are platforms on the market that do twice this, and scalability 
numbers keep going up. I'd say the route ratios (routes in DFZ and number 
of routes handled by cutting edge platforms) and convergence times have 
been fairly constant in the last 10 years, even as IPv4 routes have gone 
from ~100-150k to 350k. There is plenty of equipment developed 10+ ago 
that still can handle the current number of DFZ routes.

However, there is still a cost to this as equipment will have to be 
replaced due to their route memory not being enough, instead of other 
factors (forwarding speed for example). This is still a problem, it's 
still costing money, but I'd venture to guess it's not big enough amount 
to make sure someone will actually fix this. As long as we keep the 
current growth rate, it's not really a technical problem.

It also means there won't be any improvement in convergence time, which 
actually IS a technical problem, but not one seen to be a big enough of a 
problem either, I guess.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se