[95959] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Thoughts on increasing MTUs on the internet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Thu Apr 12 09:27:41 2007
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:26:48 -0400
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
To: Iljitsch van Beijnum <iljitsch@muada.com>
Cc: NANOG list <nanog@merit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <4BC9B966-6370-4ABC-9FA2-F80C5CF0B44F@muada.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:20:18 +0200
Iljitsch van Beijnum <iljitsch@muada.com> wrote:
>
> Dear NANOGers,
>
> It irks me that today, the effective MTU of the internet is 1500
> bytes, while more and more equipment can handle bigger packets.
>
> What do you guys think about a mechanism that allows hosts and
> routers on a subnet to automatically discover the MTU they can use
> towards other systems on the same subnet, so that:
>
> 1. It's no longer necessary to limit the subnet MTU to that of the
> least capable system
>
> 2. It's no longer necessary to manage 1500 byte+ MTUs manually
>
> Any additional issues that such a mechanism would have to address?
>
Last I heard, the IEEE won't go along, and they're the ones who
standardize 802.3.
A few years ago, the IETF was considering various jumbogram options.
As best I recall, that was the official response from the relevant
IEEE folks: "no". They're concerned with backward compatibility.
Perhaps that has changed (and I certainly) don't remember who sent that
note.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
