Internet infrastructure approaching limits of capacity

The size of the Internet is becoming a challenge for the hardware that supports it and there could be some hiccups in service in the coming months as a result, according to experts. Jim Cowie, chief scientist with New Hampshire-based Internet analytics company Dyn, said users of the Internet might have had problems accessing certain websites on Aug. 12 because on that day many of border gateway protocol (BGP) routers that direct web traffic reached their limit. Cowie said many of these routers — he's unsure the exact number or proportion — are only capable of handling about 512,000 "routes" on the Internet. These "routes" are connection points throughout the Internet — almost like exit ramps from a highway — that each lead to what can be thousands of different websites or hundreds of different devices. The number of routes currently stands about 500,000 and increases by about 30,000 to 40,000 each year, he said. This 512,000 limit was temporarily breached on Aug. 12 as Verizon Communications Inc. accidentally added several routes that were "redundant" and led to nowhere, which it later removed, Cowie said. "Suddenly, the table was a little larger than it's ever been, and we hit this fragility," he said in a phone interview. "We now know that there are certain pieces of this routing equipment out there that are older, that don't have enough of what we call TCAM ." Cowie said the result was that websites that lie behind the overwhelmed routers were unavailable, sometimes for a few hours, and those using Internet service through providers with such routers might have had problems getting online. Cisco Systems Inc. warned about the likelihood of this capacity crunch in a blog published in May, and listed several network components it supplies as having a "default configuration" to support no more than 512,000 routes. The blog did note that there were "several workarounds ... including changing the default configuration for affected devices." Cisco said that the "possibility of TCAM resource exhaustion at 512k routes is a known issue that we all know has been coming for some time." Cowie said the issue was quickly resolved, partly from Verizon taking away the unnecessary routes, and by various router owners — including service providers and other companies and organizations — performing relatively simple reconfigurations that approximately doubled the affected routers' capacity. Still, he said that because the Internet is so close to the limit for many of these routers, the problem is not over. "It's a condition that's going to happen on and off for several months," Cowie said. The good news, Cowie added, is that upgrades to these routers will take place and many will be replaced over time. This will add some breathing room between the actual size of the Internet and what the existing hardware can handle, he said. Cowie noted that there have been capacity crunches in past years, such as when the Internet hit 256,000 routes in 2008 and 128,000 in 2003. "I don't think it's going to be a huge problem," he said, noting that the publicity behind this latest issue will prompt many companies to update their equipment. A blog on the website of BGPMon Network Solutions Inc., a Vancouver-based network monitoring company, said about 15,000 new routes from Verizon appeared for only a few minutes on the morning on Aug. 12. "Luckily Verizon quickly solved the de-aggregation problem, so we’re good for now," BGPMon said in its blog. "However the Internet routing table will continue to grow organically and we will reach the 512,000 limit soon again." Craig Labovitz, CEO for DeepField, a Michigan-based company that provides network analytics and software, described the events of Aug. 12 as "interesting," though not indicative of an overall threat to the Internet's functionality. "I equate this to people running 15-year-old PCs and suddenly trying to run Windows 8 and finding it doesn't work," he said in a phone interview. "It was an interesting event," he added. "It certainly wasn't catastrophic. It was noticeable and it was widespread, but it didn't really lead to prolonged, major outages. ... There's always growing pains when you're growing as quickly as the Internet is growing." Labovitz said that while there were some websites with popular content that became unavailable, it tended not to be the major Internet services, such as those run by Google Inc. or Apple Inc., which would likely have newer and more capable equipment than smaller operations. Despite being so close to that threshold of 512,000 routes, Labovitz said Aug. 12 might not be repeated any time soon, as it likely prompted many of those with outdated equipment to upgrade. "I suspect this was the wakeup call and shook the tree for folks that had been putting off the upgrade or were otherwise unaware," he said. "I expect this was the motivating call to update the older equipment." — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Jim Cowie's name.

Internet infrastructure approaching limits of capacity

News | August 22, 2014

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