I'm really fascinated by mDNS. I think it's an excellent design, and now that Safari is out for Windows (with Bonjour support built in, I'm told) then it'll probably start to gain greater acceptance.
Indeed, I think mDNS + dynamic DNS is the recipe for a really interesting, completely decentralized naming system that works seamlessly both on and off the internet: Users register a domain name using any of the many registrars out there. They transfer it to the care of any of the many dynamic DNS providers, and then configure their client to use that name and update the dynamic DNS server whenever the client's IP address changes. Finally, the client listens on UDP port 53 and responds via mDNS to any request for that domain name. The net result is a domain name that always resolves to that client's IP, whether you do the resolution using the regular DNS system on the internet, or whether you do it using mDNS over a disconnected LAN / ad-hoc network. But more back to your question, I'm not sure mDNS is designed to or capable of scaling up to that level. As far as I know (but I might be way off), mDNS works by broadcasting totally standard DNS requests using UDP broadcast and, if anybody requests your name, you respond. This requires that everyone is within UDP broadcast range of each other, which typically means they're on the same physical LAN or VLAN. Does anyone now if this is inaccurate? If so, it doesn't seem suited to scale to the level you need. -david > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:p2p-hackers- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chaz. > Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 6:17 AM > To: theory and practice of decentralized computer networks > Subject: [p2p-hackers] p2p, mDNS and scaling > > Right now I have a p2p application that uses a proprietary membership > protocol. This protocol has been shown to scale to thousands of peers. I > was thinking of changing over to something like Bonjour. After a little > research I can't seem to find anything that indicates if Bonjour can > scale to thousands or tens of thousands of peers. I was wondering if any > one has any experience or knows of any research on the topic. > > Thanks and regards, > > Chaz. > _______________________________________________ > p2p-hackers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers
