Re: Single subnet

[Dave Katz <[e-mail]>]

>Sorry, I wasn't very clear.  If a load-splitting forwarding algorithm
>(which is suggested, but not required, by the IS-IS spec) is causing half
>of the packets to disappear into a black hole, a transport protocol such
>as TP-4 *might* be able to compensate (depending on the particular loss
>pattern), albeit with a severe degradation of performance.  Obviously,
>it would be better for the routing/forwarding algorithm to avoid such
>a failure mode, than to rely on the transport layer to survive it.
 
Ah, now I see what you mean.  Actually, I misspoke--the maintenance of
equal-cost paths by IS-IS takes place even for the last hop (IS to ES),
since the SPF algorithm runs based on adjacencies (of which there would
be two for dual-MAC systems on an unwrapped ring).  I was confused by
OSPF and dual IS-IS, which route to subnets rather than hosts (and
last hop routing is done by ARP, etc., rather than the IGP).  This whole
mess gets a little clearer every day...(and a little scarier).