Keith Moore wrote:
> ...
> but let's not try to make our task even more difficult by 
> insisting that apps support ambiguous addresses or addresses 
> with inherently limited reachability.

For one ambiguity and reachability are different concepts, and for two there
is no ambiguity required. It may happen, so we need to provide ways to
remove or deal with it when it does.

> ...
> Or they want to say that it's okay for the network to impose 
> a version of "reality" that doesn't adequately support apps. 

The network connectivity is reality. If the app doesn't work in that
reality, it simply doesn't work. Expecting the network to be globally
accessable and flat is not reality.

> 
> > > or they want to limit the kinds of apps that
> > > can be supported.  
> > 
> > No, they want to expand the kind of apps to include those 
> that are not 
> > possible with a monolithic view of the world.
> 
> Or they want to make the network so unpredictable that the 
> market for apps is fragmented - some apps can work in one 
> kind of network, some in another.

Such is life. The network connectivity will not change, so the best we can
do is provide hints to the app about how to deal with it.

> 
> Look - the whole idea of IP is that the apps don't concern 
> themselves with routing, and the network doesn't concern 
> itself with data. trying to take away this separation of 
> function doesn't make the network more flexible, it makes it 
> less flexible.  And it doesn't allow the network to support 
> more apps, it reduces the number of apps that the network can 
> support.  It balkanizes the network.

Balkanization is derived from both policy and technology and has happened
even with the separation. Allowing the apps to have a hint about what is
happening down below is not going to make a difference to that. Apps can
choose to continue with the separation model, and they will work wherever
they work. Other apps can choose to pay attention to the hints and find ways
to work around and within the reality of connectivity.

Tony


--------------------------------------------------------------------
IETF IPng Working Group Mailing List
IPng Home Page:                      http://playground.sun.com/ipng
FTP archive:                      ftp://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng
Direct all administrative requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply via email to