RE: Transport level multihoming

[Peter Tattam <peter@jazz-1.trumpet.com.au>]

On Sat, 4 Aug 2001, Sean Doran wrote:

> Peter -
> 
>   It would be interesting to see you put together a quick attempt
> at a formal registry allocation policy (with or without RIRs) for
> the small-DFZ aproach.
> 
>   I am not sure how I* would publish such a policy, but I think
> it would help crystallize the argument about the viability of
> the small-DFZ proposal.
> 

I will respond to this later.


>   Certainly, if you and others (e.g. Christian Huitema) can 
> put together some framework for actually operating the small-DFZ,
> then I'm sure that if multi6 is not the correct WG, something can
> be spun up in the Ops area.
> 
>   However, here's a good place to test how multihoming will
> actually work for sites of various sizes, for various approaches,
> independent of what biases people have.
> 
> 	Sean.
> 

One of the difficulties that makes "testing" difficult is that you can only
simulate the ideas and draw inferences from the results.  Most every other
protocol on the internet today has been put together by incremental design with
lessons being learned from real life over considerable amounts of time.  One
lesson we are learning is that EGPs aren't scaling too well, and thumb nail
simulations would indicate that it mightn't scale for Ipv6 because of the huge
address space.

The best we can do is build up a test network using the 6bone and configure it
for strong aggregation multi homing with decision making at the edges.  I don't
think this task is too difficult.  I can code up the protocol fairly quickly &
I believe there is BSD implementation in existence but I'm not sure about
availablility.

At the root of the whole debate is that we only get one chance to get it right.
It's like trying to land a guy on the moon.  If you screw up, there's a lot at
stake.

Peter

--
Peter R. Tattam                            peter@trumpet.com
Managing Director,    Trumpet Software International Pty Ltd
Hobart, Australia,  Ph. +61-3-6245-0220,  Fax +61-3-62450210