Pedro,
 
> The word aggregation is often ambiguous. In the context i'm using it it
> means to do information reduction by having an RR select the best out of
> a series of paths for the same prefix.

Which is what creates problems at times.

> 
> I wouldn't call it advocacy. I'm trying to alert the original poster to
> the issues that he/she should have in mind when using route reflection.
> The sure way to do it is to put the RRs in the forwarding path. It is
> possible to do it otherwise if one is aware of the caveats.

AFAIK there are many RR deployments which dont have the RR in the forwarding path. I would love to
poll the other ISPs on this - if that is not the case.

> 
> I would think that forwarding tends to impose harder requirements on
> network equipment than control (routing). Thus if the equipment is good
> enough to be on the forwarding path it should be ok to do route
> reflection.

Sure. But that doesnt mean that a system not capable of forwarding shouldnt be doing the cotrol
part also (RRs) :-)

> If the desired effect is information reduction through one system
> choosing a path out of a set of possible paths (route reflector) then
> that system needs to have a view that is consistent with the clients to
> which serving by selecting the best path out of a given set.

Which is what i have been trying to tell you since long. The RRs view of the "best path" *need
not* be the "best" path for all its clients. Route Server is not an answer because its very dumb
and it will shadow all the information it learns from everybody.

We need some sort of selective judgement wherein we only forward the paths which we feel may be
useful for the clients to know. 

> 
> If the issue is the number of TCP sessions (which i personally believe
> is a non issue) then you want a route server. i.e. a system that doesn't
> perform any path selection.

same as above. And i do think that number of TCP connections is an issue (both in terms of
management and scalability)

Regards,
Rasputin

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