Eventually routers stopped being able to handle full routing
in 16Mb of memory, and suddenly the very real cost of
carrying routing information around became clear to a number
of providers: how much did replacing a bunch of mostly-AGS+
routers with 64Mb Cisco 7000-series routers cost?
This memory jump has occured more than once. I remember 4 and 8 meg
routers. 16 meg boxen were deamed large enough when they were created.
The leap to 64 is just another step in the process.
nothing longer than /18 or /19 (it's /18 now, but it's
not entirely inflexible, and dialogues continue) will
have global scope.
As an aside, is anyone else besides Sprint behind this /18
model? I know that Sean is a big proponent but I have heard
no other public comment on this. (well there was one, which
indicated that the community had reached consenses on this point,
which is why I ask.)
--bill