Thus spake "E.B. Dreger" <eddy+public+spam@noc.everquick.net>
SS> When a 30Mpps IPv4 box falls back to <200kpps for IPv6, I SS> don't think "not completely functional" is an adequate SS> description. To me, that falls into the "not supported" SS> category.
Why not use the highest-order 32 bits of an IPv6 address for interdomain routing... i.e., "overlay" them on IPv4 addresses and/or a 32-bit ASN? Yes, it smells of classful routing. Call me shortsighted, but how many billion interdomain routing policies do we really need?
Most L3 switches shipping today (e.g. the product in question) have particular ethertypes and destination address offsets hardcoded into their ASICs. It's not a matter of supporting 128-bit addresses -- they simply doesn't understand IPv6's header any more than they do DECnet or AppleTalk. While allocation policies may have an effect on how IPv6 FIBs are most efficiently stored, address length is a fairly small part of the problem when you're talking about redesigning every ASIC to handle both IPv4 and IPv6. S