RFC 3221 (rfc3221) - Page 2 of 25
Commentary on Inter-Domain Routing in the Internet
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3221 Commentary on Inter-Domain Routing December 2001 1. Introduction This document examines the various longer term trends visible within the characteristics of the Internet's BGP table and identifies a number of operational practices and protocol factors that contribute to these trends. The potential impacts of these practices and protocol properties on the scaling properties of the inter-domain routing space are examined. These impacts include the potential for exhaustion of the existing Autonomous System number space, increasing convergence times for selection of stable alternate paths following withdrawal of route announcements, the stability of table entries, and the average prefix length of entries in the BGP table. The larger long term issue is that of an increasingly denser inter-connectivity mesh between ASes, causing a finer degree of granularity of inter-domain policy and finer levels of control to undertake inter-domain traffic engineering. Various approaches to a refinement of the inter-domain routing protocol and associated operating practices that may provide superior scaling properties are identified as an area for further investigation. This document is the outcome of a collaborative exercise on the part of the Internet Architecture Board. 2. Network Scaling and Inter-Domain Routing Are there inherent scaling limitations in the technology of the Internet or its architecture of deployment that may impact on the ability of the Internet to meet escalating levels of demand? There are a number of potential areas to search for such limitations. These include the capacity of transmission systems, packet switching capacity, the continued availability of protocol addresses, and the capability of the routing system to produce a stable view of the overall topology of the network. In this study we will look at this latter capability with the objective of identifying some aspects of the scaling properties of the Internet's routing system. The basic structure of the Internet is a collection of networks, or Autonomous Systems (ASes) that are interconnected to form a connected domain. Each AS uses an interior routing system to maintain a coherent view of the topology within the AS, and uses an exterior routing system to maintain adjacency information with neighboring ASes to create a view of the connectivity of the entire system. Huston Informational
