I've gotten feedback from Christian Vogt.
He spotted a few nasty bugs in my text. Thank you Christian.
(I was wrongfully claiming non-backwards compatibility).

Here's the revised version.

Thank you
// Javier Ubillos


On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 12:46 +0100, Javier Ubillos wrote:
> I have updated the critique.
> 
> Changes:
> * Rephrasing - clarifications
> * Clarified that transtion to 100% PA-addresses is unlikeley. Some use
> of PI-addresses may be motivated. The contribution is the increased
> motivation to move to PA-addresses as provider independence relies less
> and less on actual PI-addressing.
> * Name-based sockets _are_ backwards compatible.
> 
> If any one wants to contribute, I'll happily accept additions/changes
> and merge them.
> 
> // Javier
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Name-Based Sockets Critique

Name-based sockets contribution to the routing scalability problem is to 
decrease the reliance on PI addresses, allowing a greater use of PA addresses, 
and thus a less fragmented routing table. It provides end hosts with an API 
which makes the applications address-agnostic. The name abstraction allows the 
hosts to use any type of locator, independent of format or provider. This 
increases the motivation and usability of PA addresses. Some applications, in 
particular bootstrapping applications, may still require hard coded IP 
addresses, and as such will still motivate the use of PI addresses.

Deployment:
The main incentives and drivers are geared towards the transition of 
applications to the name-based sockets. Adoption by applications will be driven 
by benefits in terms of reduced application development cost. Legacy 
applications are expected to migrate to the new API in a slower pace, as the 
name-based sockets are backwards compatible, this can happen in an per-host 
fashion. Also, not all applications can be ported to a FQDN dependent 
infrastructure, e.g. DNS functions. This hurdle is manageable, and may not be a 
definite obstacle for the transition of a whole domain, but it needs to be 
taken into account when striving for mobility/multi-homing of an entire site. 
The transition of functions on individual hosts may be trivial, either through 
upgrades/changes to the OS or as linked libraries. This can still happen 
incrementally and disjoint, as compatibility is not affected by the use of 
name-based sockets.

Edge-networks:
The name-based sockets rely on the transition of individual applications, the 
name-based sockets are backwards compatible, hence it does not require 
bilateral upgrades. This does allow each host to migrate its applications 
independently. Name-based sockets may make an individual client agnostic to the 
networking medium, be it PA/PI IP-addresses or in a the future an entirely 
different networking medium. However, an entire edge-network, with internal and 
external services will not be able to make a complete transition in the near 
future. Hence, even if a substantial fraction of the hosts in an edge-network 
use name-based sockets, PI addresses may still be required by the edge-network. 
In short, new services may be implemented using name-based sockets, old 
services may be ported. Name-based sockets provide an increased motivation to 
move to PA-addresses as actual provider independence relies less and less on 
PI-addressing.



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