On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 08:39:59AM -0700, Tony Li wrote: > > > |> The key point for this group is simply this: the IP address *is* an > |> identifier, an index key, and many other things that we'll > |never fully > |> know. It is possible to change, but only gradually over > |time. If it > |> doesn't have to, all the better. > | > |Whats your conclusion? That we need to assume the IP address will be > |used as an identifier by higher layers for the foreseeable future, and > |figure out how to live with it? > > > My conclusion is that if we want to truly fix the architecture, we need to > have an explicit, distinguishable identifier partitioned from the locator. > Yes, the transition to this is not smooth, but unless we create a new > namespace, we are effectively endorsing the semantic overload that we have > today and will have to live with it in perpetuity. > > People have used the address as an identifier precisely because they had no > other choice. We have the opportunity to give them a better alternative.
Just to cause trouble, I entirely agree with both Bill and Tony. As a holder of PI space, and a site that sees PI as a hard requirement in the present network, I entirely agree with Bill that some multi-homed non-transit services, like my own, need unique identifiers in the network to support VPNs, SMTP, etc. On the other hand, I don't like it. I'd really prefer to have a set of unique identifiers for my site such that I never have to change them, regardless of who my routing providers are - but I also don't want to destroy the scaling properties of the network, and I'd like to have a locater that is specified by my provider(s). In short, Tony's right: we need to find an alternative to the current regime. Lacking any ability to do that, then my requirements suddenly look just like PI, and we'll wonder where we're going in a handbasket. This is definitely the time to fix this. -David -- to unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word 'unsubscribe' in a single line as the message text body. archive: <http://psg.com/lists/rrg/> & ftp://psg.com/pub/lists/rrg
