Routing Tables: Is Smaller Really Much Better?

We examine the case for small Internet routing and forwarding ta- bles in the context of router design. If Moore's Law drives cost- effective scaling of hardware performance in excess of the Inter- net's growth, protocol modifications and "clean slate" efforts to achieve major reduction in routing table sizes may be unnecessary. We construct an abstract model for the computation and memory requirements of a router designed to support a growing Internet in light of advances being made in multi-core processor design and large, fast memories. We conclude that these advances are largely sufficient to keep the sky from falling.