Re: What is CONTENT?

[Christophe Deleuze <deleuze@ActiVia.net>]

Barron Housel <housel@cisco.com> wrote:

> On ext: Practically speaking a lot of software keys off of the extension.
> However, technically speaking it doesn't have to be meaningful -- i.e., an
> extension of "sue" could mean "jpeg" if the content-type so indicated.  We
> could all agree to formalize this; however, I'm concerned that other
> content issues (e.g., language) may affect the choice as well.

Actually I'm not that concerned with extension names, but rather with the
service/URI scheme.  Extensions give information about the data encoding,
which I don't think to be a relevant information.  The service information
is necessary since it may very probably be a parameter in the choice of the
right surrogate (as I pointed out in my previous mail).

What I call a service is very close to the 'URI scheme' notion, albeit not
identical.  For example, one can make a distinction between static and
dynamic web pages (these are different services for cache appliances -- heu
surrogates).

> On typed domain names: Are we overloading domain names excessively?  The
> DNS proximity schemes require the domain name to map to a specific
> location (e.g., http://rtp.cisco.com/employee/... vs
> http://www.cisco.com/employee.  The later DNS could resolve to multiple
> locations: san jose, rtp, ...).

I don't understand your point.  What do you mean by 'specific location'
(rtp/www)?

> Adding content type may be a never ending
> story.  Is there potential here for a DNS admin nightmare?

Actually, rather than 'typed domain names', I would think of 'keyed domain
names' on the form 'keyxx.something.tld'.  The key would contain/refer to
any information necessary for CDNs to find out how to direct/distribute the
content (including service type).  By using a single key we can avoid
"excessively overloading' domain names.

Such keys could be locally agreed upon by peering CDNs and don't necessarily
apply between a content provider and its primary CDN.

We are currently working on this as a possible direction peering system.

-- 
Dr. Christophe Deleuze		Christophe.Deleuze@ActiVia.net
ActiVia Networks		http://www.activia.net