Guest Blogger, Doug Marschke: Routing is Dead

Routing is Dead 

by Guest Blogger: Doug Marschke, Chief Business Development Officer
 

Routing is dead. There I said it.  Now I better put on my armor to defend myself.  So let me tell you want I really mean, but let’s first start at the beginning. 

I started out in the ISP days, working for a Tier 1 ISP, then moved over to a pretty big router vendor Juniper Networks.  Along the way, I get very deep in routing protocols like ISIS, OSPF, and BGP.  These protocols which were mostly developed in the 90’s were created to solve some very real network problems of their day.  These network problems are obviously not the same today.  For a technical example, look at OSPF areas such as the stub, Not So Stubby, and Totally Stubby.  One of the many reasons for this special areas were for stability and scalability of large IGP networks. This was drive by hardware and software limitations of their day, most of which do not exist today.  When is the last time there was a REAL good reason for a multi-area OSPF with these special areas?  Also, don’t get me started with BGP and its  asymmetrical badness. 

In a recent blog http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2010/03/how-big-is-google/ it was noted that what we learned about the internet has changed.  The days of peering exchanging and large volumes of traffic being sent through Tier 1 ISP’s is dissipating.  There are several initiatives in the IETF today looking for ways to change the face of routing as we know it, and it has seen resistance.  Change is always hard. 

Routing of course will always be here to stay, but I find myself already a “graybeard” at age 34.  What am I to do?  Learn some new technologies? Become a manager?  Make a movie? (ok I did, www.madcowthemovie.com)  Well, I think it is time for me to restart and pretend like it is 1999 again, and find the answers to the NEW problems.  I heard this Ipv6 thing may take off? ;) 

Want to hear more on the subject?  I wrote a write paper on the topic of the future of routing that I will give you for free for signing up for a Proteus Elite account!