Therefore, your proposal addresses a very important architectural
problem of the Internet. If deployed, it would allow a much easier
deployment of new techniques, whether HIP, LISP, IPv6 or anything
else.
Hi Stephane -
Thanks a lot for your review and feedback. It is highly appreciated.
And I apologize for getting back to you with delay.
* a weaker form of your proposal is implemented in many programming
languages (even in C if you use libraries like neon). The program can
connect to a program on another host using just host names (for
instance, I believe Christian Huitema mentioned several times here
that
there is such an API in Microsoft products). It is weaker than your
proposal since everything is implemented in userland and therefore
such
connections typically do not survive a renumbering or rewriting.
That's right. And I think the popularity of these evolved APIs is a
good indication that application developers will adopt also the new API
provided by a hostname-oriented stack architecture.
Also, you are right that the existing evolved APIs are weaker than a
hostname-oriented stack: First, because they do not provide an Accept
From Hostname method. Second, because they cannot handle address
changes
without application-layer reconnects. A hostname-oriented stack would
provide both.
* at least for debugging purposes, it would be great to be able to
retrieve technical connection details such as the IP addresses
actually
used. Should you plan to develop a concrete API, this would have to be
handled.
Yes, I agree that this would be useful and necessary.
* Security is of course the big problem and the current proposal is a
good start, but insufficient.
Are you referring to hostname registries potentially not being
trustworthy?
* Your plan would make us more dependent on the DNS. Today, an
application may run entirely without the DNS, which would no longer be
possible with your plan. Disclaimer: I work for a domain name registry
so I find it a very good idea :-)
Right, a hostname-oriented stack would make DNS a first-class entity.
I believe this is feasible because it is true for many applications
already today. Having said this, I also acknowledge that there are
mission-critical applications that must continue functioning in the
event of a DNS failure. It may be necessary for those applications to
operate on IP addresses directly. I envision a non-default mode that
enables this. Note that a similar mode will be necessary to support
legacy applications.
- Christian
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