AO> Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:42:49 +0100 AO> From: Andre Oppermann AO> Doing longest-prefix match for high pps rates and high prefix counts AO> in hardware is complex and expensive. True, but... AO> Way more so than doing perfect match on 32 bits (giving 4bn AO> routeable slots). ...how many routers' FIBs are 32-bit perfect match right now? Or even a 24+8 radix tree? That said, one can use a hybrid { array + { btree | skip list } } for O(k + log(N)) FIB lookups when hardware doesn't support full exact match. Transition workload from logarithmic to scalar as technology permits. Classful routing is simple. Simplicity is good. However, it's still not quite time to get carried away with huge tables. (Of course, IPv6 is a good chance to "start over" with a defragmented table in which a full table would have _fewer_ routes than IPv4.) Eddy -- Everquick Internet - http://www.everquick.net/ A division of Brotsman & Dreger, Inc. - http://www.brotsman.com/ Bandwidth, consulting, e-commerce, hosting, and network building Phone: +1 785 865 5885 Lawrence and [inter]national Phone: +1 316 794 8922 Wichita ________________________________________________________________________ DO NOT send mail to the following addresses: davidc@brics.com -*- jfconmaapaq@intc.net -*- sam@everquick.net Sending mail to spambait addresses is a great way to get blocked. Ditto for broken OOO autoresponders and foolish AV software backscatter.