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Any plans for Jumbo Frames? (MTU > 1500, especially 9k)

Started by snarked, March 29, 2017, 12:17:37 PM

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snarked

I realize that HE cannot control the MTU used by its peers, but I'm wondering whether HE plans to enable "jumbo frames" on its internal network....  Being that most network lines are 10Gb fiber (or higher speed), there seems to be no reason not to enable some sort of jumbo packets with an MTU greater than the 1,500 byte 10/100 Ethernet standard.

How about it HE?

My colocation provider has enabled 9k (9,216 byte) frames internally, but clamps the MTU to 1,500 at its external routers (as its peers don't implement jumbo frames).  However, HE is one of its peers... so...?  ;-)

Note - cf:  https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mlevy-ixp-jumboframes-00   - a draft by an HE employee!

kcochran


snarked

So, does that mean that we can raise the MTU on our tunnels to 8980 and have it work with other HE "tunnelbroker" and colocation users if they make the same adjustment (and where their IPv4 transports also support an MTU of 9000 without fragmentation)?

Should I suggest to my colo facility (which peers with you) to shift to a large MTU for their external router's peering session with you?

Thank you in advance....

kcochran

Advancing the available tunnel MTU beyond 1480 isn't something we're investigating at this time.

As to peers, if it's across a public IX, odds are that isn't an option as most public exchanges exist at the traditional MTU value.  A few exchanges have a 9000 MTU option, but tend to not have many members exist on the jumbo frame VLAN.  Jumboframes on a direct connection is do-able, however.

snarked

Thank you.  Well, at least I asked, so you guys are thinking about it..... 8)