Bowtie is mission-driven by principles. We'll talk about these in subequent posts, but the first we want to discuss is: Bowtie always connects.

Bowtie operates at layer 3, and as with every layer 3 network, we must tackle the question of addressing. Addresses can be primary, secondary, or virtual – but the choice of address is critical to questions of reachability.

For private networking, nearly every corporate network operator selects from the same three private IPv4 address ranges, in various configurations and arrangements. Some overlay access providers looking to sidestep this problem have taken to leveraging a fourth pseudo-private allocation intended for use in carrier-grade NAT deployments. With these limited pools of address space, collision is inevitable.

To help us achieve our first promise, we’re turning to 20+ year-old technology that was specifically intended to solve this problem: IPv6. By embracing the abundance of IPv6, as well as multiple well-trodden adoption and transition mechanisms, we’re starting with the internet's target state addressing scheme – and doing so in a manner that bridges today’s use cases transparently.

Stay tuned for a full breakdown on how we're building this functionality at Bowtie!

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