Global Internet Routing Table Reaches 512k Milestone

Courtesy - Omar Santos, Incident Manager, Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Security Research and Operations

Since the early 1990s, we’ve watched as the number of entries on the Internet routing table has steadily grown. In 2008 the table reached 256,000 routes, triggering action by network administrators to ensure the continued growth of the Internet. Today we know that another significant milestone has been reached, as we officially passed the 512,000 or 512k route mark!

Our industry has known this milestone was approaching for some time. In fact it was as recently as May 2014 that we provided our customers with a reminder of the milestone, the implications for some Cisco products, and advice on appropriate workarounds.

If you would like to revisit that information, you can find the customer support article here: The Size of the Internet Global Routing Table and Its Potential Side Effects (12 May 2014)

Full text of the customer support article below:

Since the early 1990s, we’ve watched as the number of entries on the Internet routing table has steadily grown. It wasn’t that long ago (2008) that the table reached 256k routes, triggering action by network administrators to ensure the continued growth of the Internet. Now we have passed that another significant milestone -- the global routing table has passed 512,000 routes.

As an industry, we’ve known for some time that the Internet routing table growth could cause Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) resource exhaustion for some networking products. TCAM is a very important component of certain network switches and routers that stores routing tables. It is much faster than ordinary RAM (random access memory) and allows for rapid table lookups.

Networking Product Implications

No matter who provides your networking equipment, it needs to be able to manage the ongoing growth of the Internet routing table. We recommend confirming and addressing any possible impacts for all devices in your network, not just those provided by Cisco. The products that could be affected include those with a default configuration supporting 512k routes. From Cisco’s perspective, this includes:

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switches
• Cisco 7600 Series Routers
• Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers configured with Trident-based line cards (typhoon-based line cards are not affected)
• Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers with 4GB (devices with 8GB or RAM or higher can scale to up to 1,000,000 routes)

The Good News – Workarounds Are Available!

Cisco has published information on several workarounds that can be applied by our customers, including changing the default configuration for affected devices. In some cases this may require a reload of the device or line card. See below for the links to this customer information.

Cisco Catalyst 6500/Cisco 7600 Series Supervisor Engine 720

The following document describes how to customize the forwarding information base (FIB) ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) on Catalyst 6500 switches that run the Supervisor Engine 720: click here.

This guidance is specific to the Supervisor Engine models SUP720-3BXL and SUP720-3CXL. The “non-XL” versions do not support more than 256,000 IPv4 routes.

Click on the embedded links for additional information about the Cisco Catalyst 6500 and the Cisco 7600 Series Supervisor Engine 720 capabilities.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

The following document describes workarounds available for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers. When a Trident-based line card reaches its prefix limit, the message %ROUTING-FIB-4-RSRC_LOW occurs, causing potential traffic loss on the line cards: click here.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers with 4GB can scale to up to 500,000 IPv4 or IPv6 routes. Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers with 8GB of RAM or higher can scale to up to 1,000,000 routes. The following document provides an overview of the number of supported routes:click here.

Additional Workarounds

Route filtering and the use of a default route can also be used to decrease the number of routes in an affected device. Prefix lists can be used as an alternative to access lists in many BGP route-filtering commands. The use of prefix lists provides significant performance improvements when loading and performing route lookup of large routing tables. Additional information about BGP best practices and configuring prefix lists is available at: click here.

Security Considerations

The possibility of TCAM resource exhaustion at 512k routes is a known issue that we all know has been coming for some time. There is no related security vulnerability, and it cannot be easily triggered by a remote, untrusted user.

This website is a great resource that provides the current state of the Internet routing table. This could help Cisco customers when configuring route filtering.

Implementing the recommended workarounds ahead of time will help your network avoid any performance degradation, routing instability, or impact to availability. Having just passed the 512,000 route milestone, now is the right time to verify and ensure your network is prepared to manage a 512k entry Internet routing table.

How the Internet of Everything (IoE) Will Change the World…for the Better

Courtesy - Dave Evans 

  

As a futurist and technologist, I’m an optimist. I view technology through the lens of how it can help people.

 

From this perspective, there is no better time to be alive than now. That’s because we are entering an era where the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of everyone on our planet—from accelerating the discovery of cures for diseases, to understanding climate change, to enhancing the way companies do business, to making every day more enjoyable.

 

Already, the Internet has benefited many individuals, businesses, and countries by improving education through the democratization of information, allowing for economic growth through electronic commerce, and accelerating business innovation by enabling greater collaboration.

So what will the next decade of the Internet bring?

From the Internet of Things (IoT), where we are today, we are just beginning to enter a new realm: the Internet of Everything (IoE), where things will gain context awareness, increased processing power, and greater sensing abilities. Add people and information into the mix and you get a network of networks where billions or even trillions of connections create unprecedented opportunities and give things that were silent a voice.

 

Cisco defines IoE as bringing together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before—turning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries.

 

 

Within this definition, an important aspect of IoE (and how it differs from IoT) emerges—the concept of “network effects,” on which my Cisco IBSG colleague James Macaulay has done a lot of work.

As more things, people, and data become connected, the power of the Internet (essentially a network of networks) grows exponentially. This thinking (“Metcalfe’s law”) comes from Robert Metcalfe, well-known technologist and founder of 3Com, who stated that the value of a network increases proportionately to the square of the number of users. In essence, the power of the network is greater than the sum of its parts, making the Internet of Everything, incredibly powerful.

 

Given the tremendous anticipated growth of the Internet over the next 10 years, it is critical for business and government leaders, as well as citizens, to begin preparing for what is to come. Here are some questions to get you started:

 

• How do I set priorities to match the opportunities that will exist in the connected world of IoE?
• Given the impact the Internet already has had on my business, what happens when new categories of things are connected at exponential rates?
• What are the potential benefits and risks of IoE for my business or government organization?
• How should organizations be structured around information and processes?
• How will governance, control, and responsibility change in an IoE world?

 

In my next blog, I will cover some of the ways IoE is already benefiting businesses, people, and governments, as well as how the Internet will be able to address some of humanity’s most pressing issues.

 

Let me know what you think. Is IoE just another buzzword, will it change the world, or is it somewhere in between?

 

You can also join the discussion at:

 

#IoE and #InternetofEverything

 

 

Bill Gates Invests in Satellite Broadband

Patent house Intellectual Ventures Management LLC (IV) is spinning off satellite antenna maker Kymeta after securing a $12 million round in funding from a group that includes Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates.

Kymeta plans to use the funds to "simplify the satellite connection needed for broadband Internet on the go, anywhere in the world," it said in an announcement Tuesday afternoon. Other backers include international cable operator Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY) and Lux Capital.

Kymeta plans to achieve its lofty goal by commercializing IV's Metamaterials Satellite Antenna Technology (MSA-T). MSA-T is an artificial material engineered to manipulate electromagnetic radiation, meaning that Kymeta's "mTenna" can point and steer radio signals toward a satellite to connect a mobile device to broadband. The companies say that this approach is thinner, lighter, more efficient and less expensive than traditional antenna technology.
The company expects to have the first product commercially available by 2015. Kymeta is the second company to spin out from IV, which has been criticized for using its patent trove for the basis of lawsuits rather than for new product innovation. Its first spinoff was nuclear power startup TerraPower.

Why this matters
If it works, Kymeta's technology could help to bring affordable broadband to areas that lack access to high-speed connections, and help to meet a goal of the U.S. National Broadband Plan. And, if metamaterials can help eliminate interference concerns for mobile broadband via satellite, the spinoff could be on to something big. That's the kind of issue that's kept LightSquared , which wanted to build out an Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in satellite spectrum, from getting off the ground.

For Liberty Global, Kymeta's technology could come in handy to bring high-speed Internet services where its Docsis networks don't reach, and possibly set it up for offering broadband services outside its traditional cable footprints.

IV says that the satellite antenna technology Kymeta is using is just the tip of the iceberg for the application of metamaterials. The company is plotting mobile apps for the aerospace, transportation and maritime industries, and plans to develop portable satellite hot spots for individual users, such as field reporters, emergency responders and customers in remote areas.
 

Internet2 Accelerates to 100 Gigabit

Internet2 is moving to 100 Gigabit per second (100G) networking thanks to new technologies and standards. Internet2 is a high-speed network connecting over 50,000 research and educational facilities.

The official move to 100G networking should not come as a surprise, as Internet2 first announced its 100G intentions back in 2008. What has changed in the last two years is that 100G networking has moved from becoming just an idea to becoming an implementable reality.

 

"In 2008 Internet2, ESnet and our partners were really trying to help the market realize the need for 100G capabilities being driven by the research and education community," Rob Vietzke, Internet2 Executive Director of Network Services told InternetNews.com. "Our goal was to push faster adoption of 100G standards and get ready for the deployment that we are now beginning this year."

Vietzke added that today vendors are shipping 100G transponders for DWDM (define) systems as well as 100G interfaces for routers. Availability of 100G equipment is linked to the fact that the IEEE 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet standard was ratified in June.

 

"Another thing that has changed is that scientists involved in big science projects like the Large Hadron Collider are already delivering huge data flows that require these expanded capabilities," Vietzke said.

Internet2 will be using equipment from Juniper Networks in order to build out its 100G infrastructure. Luc Ceuppens, Vice President of Product Marketing, Juniper Networks told InternetNews.com that Internet2 currently has T1600 core routers in service. He add that Internet2 is currently deploying the new 100G network on a region-by-region basis and expects to complete deployment in 2013. The T1600 is Juniper's flagship core routing platform. A 100G line card for the T1600 was announced by Juniper back in June of 2009.

 

Internet2's new 100G enabled network will actually have a total network capacity that dwarfs current systems. Back in 2008, Vietzke told InternetNews.com that Internet2 was running a 100 gigabit per second backbone by utilizing ten 10 Gbps waves.

 

"The new network that will be built will include between 5 and 8 terabits of capacity, based on the latest 100G DWDM systems and Juniper's T1600 routers," Vietzke said "It will have capability for at least fifty 100G waves and include a national scale 100G Ethernet service on the T1600 on day one."

In terms of cost, Juniper declined to comment on the specific value of the deployment of their gear to Internet2. That said, Vietzke noted that Internet2 has received funding from the U.S. government for the effort.

 

"Internet2 has been very fortunate to receive a $62.5M American Reinvestment and Recovery Act investment that will help support this project and deliver next generation network capabilities not only to our existing community but to as many as 200,000 community anchor institutions across the country," Vietzke said.