In a previous article entitled "Analyzing the Internet BGP Routing Table," Geoff Huston examined many issues relating to the operation of today's Internet. In this issue
he goes a step further and suggests ways in which the fundamental routing architecture could be changed to solve problems related to routing-table growth. The article is
called "Scaling Inter-Domain Routing—A View Forward."
The IP address space is administered by three entities, namely APNIC, ARIN and RIPE NCC. Collectively referred to as the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs),
these organizations are responsible for address allocation to their member organizations (typically national registries or large Internet Service Providers). Since the
IPv4 address space is a limited resource, this allocation has to be done with care, while accounting for the needs of the adress space consumers. We asked the RIRs for an
overview of the work they perform. What we received was a joint effort that not only describes the RIR structure, but also gives some historical background on the
evolution of IP addressing and routing.
We were pleased to receive a couple of Letters to the Editor recently, both in response to articles in our previous issue. This kind of feedback is most welcome and we
encourage you to send your comments and suggestions to ipj@cisco.com.
We'd like to remind you that all back issues of The Internet Protocol Journal can be downloaded from
www.cisco.com/ipj/. Click on "IPJ Issues" and you will be taken to the appropriate section.
By the time you read this, our online subscription system should be operational. You will find it at our Web site:
www.cisco.com/ipj/. Please let us know if you encounter any difficulties by sending e-mail to
ipj@cisco.com.