Early release! 512K Day: The Day The Internet (almost) Broke
Added 2025-05-22 22:51:21 +0000 UTCWe're back with a detailed look at an infamous day in Internet history. On August 12, 2014, the BGP routing table surpassed 512,000 routes, causing issues with certain networking platforms. One of those platforms, the Cisco 6500, was one of the most popular and widespread at the time, especially in Internet infrastructure.
Using a 6500 we got from Abacus Hardware, we recreate the conditions of 512K Day to see exactly what happened on that fabled day.
Thanks as always for your support!
Comments
The Cisco 6500 family did have SUPs after the sup720-3bxl with more FIB capacity, not familiar with the details offhand though. Juniper used a technology somewhat evolved from TCAM with even higher limits.
The Serial Port
2025-05-29 19:44:56 +0000 UTCThis was an exciting video that informs end users what goes on to enable them to easily connect with the world, and the problems that can arise. I assume there is new router hardware to handle the exponential increase in Internet traffic since 2014 to 2025 and beyond. Excellent video again!
George G.
2025-05-24 10:23:28 +0000 UTCI vaguely remember this (but then, that far back everything is a bit vague ). So what's the current state of affairs? Are the current routers set with higher limits? While I'm sure there are many 6500s still use, is the a successor that won't have this issue?
Jack Beckman
2025-05-23 13:06:12 +0000 UTC
