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RE: IPv6 prefixes longer then /64: are they possible in DOCSIS networks?


From: "Jamie Bowden" <jamie () photon com>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:55:07 -0500



-----Original Message-----
From: Jimmy Hess [mailto:mysidia () gmail com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 11:14 AM
To: Ray Soucy
Cc: NANOG
Subject: Re: IPv6 prefixes longer then /64: are they possible in
DOCSIS
networks?

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Ray Soucy <rps () maine edu> wrote:
Saying you can mitigate neighbor table exhaustion with a "simple
ACL"
is misleading (and you're not the only one who has tried to make
that
claim).

It's true, though, you can.
But you can also mitigate neighbor table exhaustion by using a long
prefix /126;
you create an upper bound on the number of neighbor table entries that
are possible,
and that bound is less than your device's memory capacity for neighbor
table entries.

This is a more reliable mitigation than an ACL;  it is also simpler
and less likely for an
operator to mistake to render the mitigation useless, or cause other
issues.

From a pure security POV,  it's easy to reject ACL mitigation in favor
of inherent
designed-in  mitigation / non-vulnerability.

From a network design POV, there may still be reasons to prefer the
ACL
method.
They better be good reasons, such as a requirement for SLAAC on a
large
LAN.

Or maybe the IETF could, you know, decouple SLAAC from a particular
netmask and make the world a better place for all of us who aren't
backbone providers.  Do we have to recreate the mistakes from v4 all
over again?

Jamie


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