My network is getting complicated VERY fast. Currently it is bridged, and I am running out of IP addresses with just a class C. In about 10 days I will be adding another AP that will double the size of my network in just a matter of weeks. Some serious planning needs to be done here, and I am asking for some help. I have pretty much decided to use BGP. I am "routing challenged" and don't really know where to start.

My current network has 4 AP's and is all bridged on 10.0.0.0/24. What I am thinking is that I should use 10.0.0.0/16 for backhaul and gateway routers, and then each AP should have it's own class C, for eg. 10.0.1.0/24 and 10.0.2.0/24 sections of my network. I already have multiple routes to the internet (several 6M DSL lines with static IP) all at one location. The new AP is in a different town, and will start as just an extension of my current network, but in time will have it's own gateway that needs to be shared with the complete network with failover. I see myself adding 2 more towns in the next year with a total of 8 to 12 AP's and 400 customers. And here's the big one, I want IPV6 dual stack right along with my natted ipv4 network.

A. Is a class C enough? Or should I be planning larger?
B. Would a class A network slow things down at all with BGP routing?
C. For a complicated routing situation like this, is BGP the right choice?

Just asking for some input at this point. Once I have a solid plan down, I'll be asking for a little routing help. It seems the wiki could use a good simple routing/subnetting page...after this is all done I'll see what I can submit

BGP is not right coise for this purpose.BGP mostly for routing between autonomous systems of ISP. For you needs try to use OSPF/Ripng

Wow, RIP is way too easy! Problem is, I want to use OSPF, and I don't fully understand it yet... More heavy reading. My biggest problem is I'm learning on a live network so I don't touch anything until I KNOW what the results will be, and that level of confidence only comes with LOTS of examples and good reading.

Anyone have any insight on question A & B above?

Thanks!

with routing (not bridging) you may use any network mask - it depends only on your needs. do not do large broadcast domains - and you'll be happy. just enable OSPF on your routers =)

OSPF is real easy. Just add the network under the OSPF router ID. And it does not use route summarization unlike RIPv2. So you can add any class of network you like. Its that easy.

@melwong
Yup, waaay to easy! I got my whole network reconfigured last night, and only had one unhappy customer when I got up this morning. Had to refresh his DHCP supplied routing tables. Not too bad!

@Chupaka
Thanks, so I should probably go with a class A just for future proof-ness, not like there's any future in IPv4


Now, will OSPF work with IPV6, or what should I be looking at there. I have a 48 from HE (tunnelbroker.net) that I have been playing with. Several months ago I managed to manually route it thru part of my network, but I'm just looking for something like OSPF. Where should I start?

you should start from RouterOS v3 with routing-test package, look at OSPFv3