Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!KINETICS.KINETICS.COM!minshall
From: minshall@KINETICS.KINETICS.COM
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: Routing table size for FP.
Message-ID: <8906061839.AA10606@kinetics.kinetics.com>
Date: 6 Jun 89 18:39:33 GMT
References: <12499810434.36.OP.BOWMAN@SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

Pieter (and all),

>     I believe that with a FastPath 2 running KIP the number of entries
> available in the routing tables is 64.  What is the number for a
> FastPath 4 running either KIP or K-STAR?

There is a size limit for packets containing the atalkad information (extracted
from atalkatab).  That comes out to something like 64 entries for an older
FastPath 2 or 3.  With the FastPath 4, that limit could be increased.  There
are two things to consider here.  First, all the FastPath's would need to
be FastPath 4's.  A older FastPath 2 would not be able to communicate with
atalkad if the packets were too large.  Second, neither Kip nor K-STAR
supports IP reassembly of datagrams addressed to the FastPath.  So, if the
packet is large enough that it gets fragmented, it will be dropped.

We have thought quite a bit about how to configure large networks to run
"IP talk".  We have come up with a reasonable scheme which won't involve
any changes to atalkad, but will allow for "arbitrary" sized networks to
be configured.  We will be doing the engineering work to verify that our
scheme works over the next several months.  Once we know that the
scheme works, we will share the details with the general community.

Our plan is to have this capability available by the end of this calendar year.

>     Also, are the routes cached?  Does every bridge have to know about
> every other bridge all the time, or can there be more nets than
> entries in any one box's routing table?

No, the routes aren't cached.  Every bridge needs to know about every other
bridge.  This really is reasonable; *most* routing protocols need to know
all their immediate neighbors.


Greg Minshall				1-415-947-0998
minshall@kinetics.com			Kinetics, a division of Excelan, Inc.