> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On 
> Behalf Of Shane Amante

> c)  Declare the flow-label is _immutable_ and must be set by 
> all hosts and must only contain a 3- or 5-tuple hash of the 
> appropriate IPv6 headers.  Further use cases for the 
> flow-label would be restricted.  IMHO, this would be by far 
> the easiest from an implementation and operational 
> point-of-view, however this is unlikely to appeal to 
> proponents of domain-specific special-uses of flow-labels, 
> unfortunately.  

Count me in. In following this thread, I've come to believe that this is the 
best course of action. And it keeps the flow label immutable, as originally 
prescribed.

> Therefore, if a legitimate use of flow-labels has not been 
> found in the last 15 years of IPv6 development, it's time to 
> move on and use the flow-label for something useful and 
> practical in production networks, (i.e.: a hash of the 3- or 
> 5-tuple of L3 + L4 headers for LAG + ECMP load-balancing).

Indeed. This becomes doable easily in IPv6, no matter the extension headers. 
What better purpose could there be for this field? And it's certainly NOT a 
stretch to think that the traditional 5-tuple was, in fact, used to define what 
some might call a "flow."

Bert
--------------------------------------------------------------------
IETF IPv6 working group mailing list
[email protected]
Administrative Requests: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipv6
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply via email to