> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Rescorla [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 7:24 PM
> To: Narayanan, Vidya
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [P2PSIP] Should RELOAD impose a size restriction 
> for storage?
> 
> At Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:04:28 -0800,
> Narayanan, Vidya wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > When an overlay is composed of heterogeneous nodes, it is 
> unrealistic 
> > to expect all nodes to have the ability to store and serve all data
> 
> That's what being a node means in this context. If you can't 
> meet the minimum requirements you shouldn't join the overlay 
> as a peer, but rather as a client.
> 

It is the minimum requirement I was talking about.  I agree that all peers must 
support the minimum requirement.  Turns out I didn't read the draft carefully 
enough - it looks like the size is part of the overlay configuration.  Sorry 
for missing that.  However, I don't see an error code for rejecting a store 
request due to its size - it may help to have one.  

> 
> > Now, a node may always reject the request to store something.
> 
> In a structured overlay, the particular set of nodes which 
> are responsible for storing a given data object is defined by 
> the topology. If nodes unilaterally refuse to store given 
> kinds of data, this basically breaks the underlying semantics 
> of the overlay, with the problem made worse by the fact that 
> the overlay topology shifts over time.
> 

What I was getting at above was that there is no way to enforce compliance to 
the overlay requirements in a distributed system.  I wasn't saying that a 
compliant peer would unilaterally refuse a conforming store request. 

> 
> > It is not readily possible for a storing node to tell what type of 
> > data it is being requested to store
> 
> On the contrary: in RELOAD data is typed by "usage", so it is 
> fairly clear.
> 

I think there is more to discuss on this topic.  I'll take this up in a 
separate thread.  

> 
> > - however, it may be reasonable
> > for overlays to have a guidance on the upper bound on the size of a 
> > single data item.  This should be configurable for overlays and may 
> > even be advertised as part of the overlay configuration.  
> This allows 
> > participating nodes to be composed of heterogeneous 
> capabilities and 
> > still maintain a reasonable level of robustness in the 
> overlay.  Nodes 
> > may choose to accept data items larger than this upper bound - 
> > however, the data owner must be prepared for a rejection of 
> the store 
> > request when the data is larger than the bound.
> > 
> > Thoughts? 
> 
> We considered exactly this design during the early design 
> phase of RELOAD. Unfortunately, it's unstable. The problem is 
> that the set of nodes assigned to store a data value shifts over time.
> So, I may store value X with node A, which can accept it, but 
> then node B takes over some of node A's space and node B 
> can't store the data and it just silently vanishes. In order 
> to provide any reasonable level of service expectation, the 
> nodes have to be willing to provide more or less the same 
> level of service as far as storage goes.
> 

I think we agree on this - my concern was coming from incorrectly thinking that 
there is no size requirement specified for an overlay.  Designing an overlay 
where nodes may have variable bounds doesn't make sense and I wasn't suggesting 
we go there. 

Vidya
_______________________________________________
P2PSIP mailing list
[email protected]
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/p2psip

Reply via email to