Computational power required for a route flap is not the issue here.

Many people have stated that, statistically longer prefixes flap more. Unfortunately, they have then said that because of this shorter prefixes should have looser dampening parameters put on them, when what they really meant was that the longer prefixes should have more strict dampening parameters put on them. Yes it is exactly the same thing, but it is an important semantic distinction. If a group of prefixes categorized by a its length tends to flap more than the average, then said group should have more strict dampening parameters placed on it.

From a single data point on my router, /24's currently account for 64% of

Statistics are soo much fun. the routing table entries and for 65% of the flapping prefixes. /16's account for 12% of the routing table entries, and 10% of the flapping prefixes. It doesn't appear to me there is a significant difference between flap behaivor of long prefixes and short prefixes. There are more long prefixes than short prefixes. But as a group they both tend to flap the same proportion of 2% of the routes within the group. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation