Category: Tags

SRv6

Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) is mostly a solution in search of a problem, reimplementing source routing with various forms of IPv6 extension headers. Not surprisingly, its vocal proponents sell it as the ultimate solution to all networking problems.

Is It Useful?

Is it useful to have yet another tunneling mechanism with source routing capabilities? Here are a few thoughts:

No, It Is Not

Quite a few people (myself included) came to the conclusion that SRv6 makes little sense:

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OSPF

OSPF is like a traffic director for the internet. Imagine a city with many roads - OSPF helps routers (the traffic directors) figure out the best paths for data to travel from one place to another. It’s like a smart GPS for computers, making sure information takes the shortest and fastest routes. OSPF routers talk to each other, share maps of the internet, and decide the best ways to send data. It’s a cool system that keeps the internet running smoothly!

ChatGPT explaining OSPF to a high-school kid

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SR-MPLS

Segment Routing with MPLS Labels (SR-MPLS) is a major improvement over the traditional MPLS control plane (LDP or RSVP-TE). Instead of running two protocols (a routing protocol and a signaling protocol), SR-MPLS adds segment information to the IS-IS or OSPF topology database, avoiding the pesky IGP/LDP synchronization issues we’ve been fighting for decades.

The MPLS labels (Segment Identifiers) assigned to nodes, adjacencies, or prefixes can be used to transport data across the network (similar to traditional MPLS core), to establish traffic engineering tunnels, or to implement topology-independent loop-free alternate paths for fast failover.

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