[rbridge] Network size (Re: it's time to summarize things)

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]

I think I stick to my original proposal:

the protocol MUST function effectively in deployments of:

 * 1000 end-hosts in a single bridged LAN of 100 bridges
 * 100.000 end-hosts inside 1000 VLANs served by 10.000 bridges

My reasoning is that if we find that a proposal is effective only at 
smaller sizes than this, we should reject the proposal outright, and not 
waste time on discussion.

Having size limits like "at least as great as can be accomplished..." can 
easily lead to us re-fighting the issue of "how big can the networks be 
using protocol X" when evaluation time comes around.

There's nothing magic about these numbers. But they're easy to measure.

--On 16. desember 2005 12:21 +0100 Guillermo Ibáñez <gibanez at it.uc3m.es> 
wrote:

> Just to elaborate on the ambiguity of saying
>
> "MUST work for LANs of a size
> at least as great as can be accomplished using 802.1 bridges."
>
> Using Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1Q) with a lot of MSTP
> regions, very big networks can be built, although quite complex to
> configure and manage.
> Using RSTP with point to point links, my understanding is that it seems
> there is no real limit to  network size, although % of network
> utilization will be very low and root bridge will become congested. If
> there are shared links in the network, (situation like STP)  then the
> port state transitions to forwarding are governed by timers,  with  max
> values  of 30 seconds. Network size is then limited, as in STP.



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