RE: inet address mib issue

[Peder Chr. Nørgaard <pcn@tbit.dk>]

On Wed, 3 May 2000, Andrew Smith wrote:

> Mike,
> 
> I had the same issue with the Diffserv MIB that I'm hacking right now - I've
> added an additional InetAddressType variable, as the immediately preceding
> OID to the matching InetAddress variable, as required by the Textual
> Convention instructions. 
> 
> For Address/Mask pairs though, Fred Baker pointed out that Masks are almost
> universally contiguous and that a mask length was a more appropriate
> solution. I don't know the details of your problem but the same answer may
> help you too.

I would second this; I have written and implemented several private MIBs
containing IPv4/IPv6 address structures (not using the InetAddress yet,
but that will change with the issuing of this MIB.)

For masks I have always found it much easier to simply use mask lengths,
both for IPv4 and IPv6.  A side effect: it saves space in the PDUs,
especially when the mask/mask length is part of an index.

I think the only place in the standards where non-contiguous masks are
allowed is in the old IPv4 subnet specifications - and I now of noone who
actually uses those, nor can I see any reason to.

Prefix masks, in my opinion, is a relic.  Of course, standard MIBs, living
a long life, must necessesarily contains relics;  but there is usually no
reason to keep them when building new MIBs.
 
best regards


> 
> Andrew
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Thatcher [mailto:thatcher@redback.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2000 2:05 PM
> > To: mibs@ops.ietf.org
> > Subject: inet address mib issue
> > 
> > 
> > the description states that each object of InetAddress requires a
> > corresponding object of InetAddressType.  This seems a little too
> > restrictive when I want to define an address and a mask for 
> > the address.
> > Even though the mask will always have the same type as the 
> > address, I'm
> > still required to have another InetAddressType object for the mask.
> > 
> > miket
> > 
> > 
> 

-- 
Peder Chr. Nørgaard                   Senior System Developer, M. Sc.
Ericsson Telebit A/S                  tel: +45 86 75 68 49
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