I am a Ph.D. student whose work is basically about bringing an ABR-like mechanism to the Internet. I identified some data to be transmitted to end nodes and designed a protocol to carry them (draft-welzl-ptp-03.txt). Please take a look at http://www.tk.uni-linz.ac.at/~michael/ptp/ to see the current state of my work; the specification encompasses the definition of Content Types (the type of data to be transmitted). However, I am convinced that a more generic approach (like IntServ / RSVP) would be better: - Various Content Types could be used, showing different properties - like "does the calculation infer per-flow state in routers?". This is not necessarily restricted to bandwidth calculations; for instance, a link's MTU could also be transmitted to provide more efficient Path MTU Discovery. Once Content Types are identified, it is necessary to discuss what should be simulated and/or tested. - Partly depending on the data to be transmitted, it would make sense not only to define a new protocol but also to define extensions to other protocols such as RSVP and RTCP. Actually, the name "ABR to the Internet" is not quite precise; in fact, it's more like "ABR Explicit Rate Feedback related mechanisms for the Internet". In any case, it all needs IETF standardization because it will never really work without router support. Therefore, I believe parties working in related areas should request permission to hold a BOF session. I would personally do so, but I might not be able to attend the next two IETF meetings due to our departments current financial situation. I could do it at the London meeting next summer, though. That also gives us some time to refine the concept. Be it for a BOF or not, I would really like to get some cooperation and discussion going. I set up the page at http://www.tk.uni-linz.ac.at/~michael/ptp/ in support of this mail. If you want to participate, please join the list (details at the site). Kind regards, Michael Welzl PS: Feel free to forward this to anybody you think might be interested. Also, if you know the e-mail address of Tim Mangan ( http://www.frforum.com/3000/tim.html ), please forward this to him; [EMAIL PROTECTED] doesn't seem to work - he originally had the idea of forming a Working Group. David Lapsley should also be interested, but [EMAIL PROTECTED] doesn't work either.
