RE: recent slowdown in routing table growth

["Tony Li" <Tony.Li@procket.com>]

|   Why do people keep blaming multihomers for the mess that is 
|   the global routing table? 


Because it is an unsolved technical problem that needs to be addressed.
Please consider the very long term.  What will IPv6 look like in 2050?


|   Based on what we can see today, this is utter nonsense.
|   There are maybe 10000 multihomers in the world.


So?  It will continue to grow.  I can remember when the default free
table was 5000 routes.  Total.  And the number of multihomers will
eventually start to grow faster than the number of ISPs.  We're
already seeing ISP contraction.  Connectivity is becoming more
mission-critical every day, so more people multihome for reliability.

And today those 10000 cost more resources to the DFZ than any other
10000 sites.  


|   The absolute number one top reason for routing table pollution 
|   is stupidity.


Agreed, but the IETF is *NOT* about reducing stupidity.  Don't believe
me?  Go to a meeting.  ;-)


|  Routing table size problems because of multihoming are simply impossible
|  because of the 16 bit AS number space and the current IPv6 routing
|  guidelines that forbid multihoming.


And what happens when we shift to 4 byte AS numbers?  And the restriction
on multihoming is lifted because we, in our infinite wisdom, decided that 
PI space is just fine?

We need an architecture where people can multihome without a DFZ routing
table entry.  And yes, we need to fix a lot of other problems too.  But
any one of these problems could eventually eat us alive and we have to 
fix all of them.  My vote is that we not forget the harder technical
issues and leave the social engineering issues for those that are more
qualified.

Tony