Joshua Smith wrote:
i have been told that it is that way for 'backup' purposes (they announce one or two /2[456]s to me with about 15 as prepends, and announce their entire /20, plus all of their longer prefixes, to another provider) they also told me that it will not be changed...apparently, as routers get more powerful and memory gets 'cheaper', they feel that it is not their responsibility to help maintain global routing table sizes
That's just beyond me. Since local preference is chosen before AS hop count, providers that are setup right allow for easily crafting your routing. I run an AS prepend out Sprint with default LP, which allows any packet that makes it to their network to come strait to me, but anyone that is multi-homed or exterior will probably go out another way. I work with communities to make routing symetrical as possible (not perfect, but close). Then I shoot out my aggregates via Qwest untouched and it's smooth sailing with a backup. Then again, when dealing with various providers over the years, I've gotten some funny looks when I start talking communities and the need for symetrical routing. -Jack