Hi all,
I have some questions depending the usage of the flow
label field within IPv6. Background of my questioning is
that actually within 3GPP standardization the discussion
appears if the flow label could be used for bearer
identification if IPv6 would be chosen as transport
option within the UMTS Radio Access Networks.
Within RFC2460 the usage of the flow label field is not
fully described and for me it is not clear if anything
mentioned in the Appendix is part of the standard or
only for information. Therefore I have the following
questions:
- Would the flow label be set by the Application?
As far as I could see from the API description
the flow label would be set from the application layer,
can also be read by the application layer and must be chosen
pseudo-randomly. Are there any further restrictions?
- Can intermediate routers change the flow label?
Appendix A of RFC2460 states that hosts or routers that
do not support the flow label should pass the field on
unchanged. Is this also true for hosts or routers that
do support the flow label? What is the procedure if an
router supports flow labels but has no context about a
specific flow label?
- Are there any ideas how to use the flow label field in
the future, especially with respect to non-default QoS?
- In our view IP flows are quit similar to what is called
transport bearer within an UMTS RAN. Are there any
objections that preclude mapping of transport bearers
to IP flows?
and last but not least:
- Is this the right place to put my questions or are there
other WGs involved into flow label processing?
Cheers Jochen
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Jochen Metzler Siemens AG
Lise-Meitner-Stra�e 5, 89081 Ulm
Phone: +49.(0)731.9533.390
Mobile Networks Fax : +49.(0)731.9533.336
ICM N MR UR SE 2 mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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