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This thesis analyzes and discusses the effectiveness of social efforts to
achieve collective action amongst Internet network operators in order to manage
the growth of the Internet routing table. The size and rate of growth of the
Internet routing table is an acknowledged challenge impeding the scalability of
our BGP interdomain routing architecture. While most of the work towards a
solution to this problem has focused on architectural improvements, an effort
launched in the 1990s called the CIDR Report attempts to incentivize route
aggregation using social forces and norms in the Internet operator community.
This thesis analyzes the behavior of Internet network operators in response to
the CIDR Report from 1997 to 2011 to determine whether the Report was
effective in achieving this goal.

While it is difficult to causally attribute aggregation behavior to appearance
on the CIDR report, there is a trend for networks to improve their prefix
aggregation following an appearance on the CIDR Report compared to untreated
networks. This suggests that the CIDR Report did affect network aggregation
behavior, although the routing table continued to grow. This aggregation
improvement is most prevalent early in the study period and becomes less
apparent as time goes on. Potential causes of the apparent change in efficacy
of the Report are discussed and examined using Ostrom's Common Pool Resource
framework. The thesis then concludes with a discussion of options for
mitigating routing table growth, including the continued use of community
forces to better manage the Internet routing table.