Responsible Edge Policies

Avi Freedman long ago described a route advertisement as a promise to deliver packets to the advertised destination. I’ve liked that adage so much that I’ve used it over the years in numerous networking classes and have even quoted it in one of my books.

There’s a lot behind that little statement: You are expected to live up to your promises, so if you promise to deliver packets to a destination you must perform due diligence to insure that you really can. Likewise, you must be sure that you do not make a promise that you cannot keep: Make sure you do not advertise a destination that you cannot route packets to.

Read more at Jeff Doyle's blog.