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Heirarchical assignment allows route summarisation. Imagine how much TCAM you'd need for unsummarized IPv6.
by waste_monk 7y ago
Heirarchical assignment allows route summarisation. Imagine how much TCAM you'd need for unsummarized IPv6.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoYes, you're correct. But at the same time hierarchical assignment allows organization, including route summarization, it undermines the argument that there are too many addresses to exhaust. Addresses can easily be (in fact, are guaranteed to be) exhausted by the organizational system without ever being in use. The goals are in conflict.
- Dagger2 7y agoThey are being used -- for the purpose of allowing the internet to scale. But yes, we do need to be careful not to assign blocks that are too large. We're doing a good job of this (see any /8s being assigned?). We're also doing allocations only from 2000::/3, and there are five more completely untouched /3s available, so if we do somehow run out of space in 2000::/3 then we can start over with tighter allocation polices... five times over.