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Date:      Wed, 19 Jun 1996 08:57:34 +0100 (BST)
From:      Jim Dixon <jdd@vbc.net>
To:        "Daniel O'Callaghan" <danny@lynx.its.unimelb.edu.au>
Cc:        Chris Watson <scanner@webspan.net>, freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: BGP on a cisco 2500 series
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSD/.3.91.960619084942.13373G-100000@uk1.vbc.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.91.960619160836.12192A-100000@lynx.its.unimelb.edu.au>

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On Wed, 19 Jun 1996, Daniel O'Callaghan wrote:

> > I think that a full routing table takes about 6 MB these days.  The
> > Cisco 2501 comes with 2 MB and you can add 16 MB for something like $300
> > if you don't buy the SIMM from Cisco.  Use one Cisco to handle one feed
> > and the other Cisco to handle the other feed.  If you get a lot of route
> > flaps, increase the dampening.
> 
> That's interesting.  Telstra Internet in Australia is suggesting a 64MB 
> router for full BGP4 peering with them.  Now I don't know much (anything) 
> about how routes are stored in a router's RAM, but 34,000 routes x 32 
> bytes (net, mask, gw, status, ASN, etc)  gives about 1 MB of data.
> I'm quite prepared to be out by a factor of 5 or even 10, but why would 
> Telstra be suggesting a 64MB router for their peers?
> (see http://www.telstra.net/np.html)

I really would rather not got into a religious dispute, nor would I want
to ... how does one say this sort of thing? ... question the bona fides
of your supplier.  But if I look at memory usage on a Cisco handling 
BGP4 peering with a single external BGP4 peer, it is roughly 6 MB for 
roughly 30K routes.  This Cisco also peers with six other internal BGP4
peers.  If you like, I can send you more detail by private email.

Memory requirements shoot up when routers are handling multiple BGP4 peers
at peering points where there is a lot of traffic and a lot of routes
flapping.  But to be honest, from the little that I know about the Internet
in Australia and New Zealand, I don't see that you would have the kind of
wild instability that is prevalent at the major US peering points.
 
> The fact that they are attempting to charge US$1600 per month for peering 
> with them suggests that they don't want peers, but could the 64 MB 
> requirement be an additional attempt to dissuade peering?

8-)

--
Jim Dixon              VBCnet GB Ltd +44 117 929 1316  fax +44 117 927 2015
http://www.uk.vbc.net  VBCnet West   +1  408 971 2682  fax +1  408 971 2684




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