RE: Meaning of "backward compatible" WAS RE: Consensus Call on RADEXT WG re-charter

["Matt Holdrege" <Matt.Holdrege@strixsystems.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radiusext@ops.ietf.org [mailto:owner-radiusext@ops.ietf.org]
On Behalf Of David B. Nelson


An alternate point of view is that a RADIUS client or server
implementation
doesn't need to change very much if the sockets that it opens are stream
sockets as opposed to datagram sockets.  The data flow, above the socket
layer, (i.e. the application PDU stream) is the same.  In that regard,
the
RADIUS protocol specification relies upon, but does not include the
socket
layer and all the layers below.

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-----------------

The above would be a heck of an assumption to make for all RADIUS
clients out in the field. The real world is rarely as simple as a high
level protocol architecture document. RADIUS has always used UDP and
perhaps a lot of developers have counted on that and never developed
their products to be socket layer neutral. Not to mention that a
firmware change of clients is not really an option in most cases.
However as I said before, it's nothing much to cry about on the server
side.


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