Routing Scalability: An Operator's View

The Internet and its associated global routing table continues to grow with time. Will the current routing infrastructure be able to scale itself to sustain such growth? Over the past several years, many efforts have been devoted to address this important question. This paper presents a unique view from a network operator's perspective. We first clarify the definition of the routing scaling problem in practical terms by providing the relevant background information. We point out several reality issues that, if overlooked, may impede the adoption and deployment of a solution. Based on our operational experiences, we identify several requirements for potential solutions, and provide brief comments on the existing solutions.