Re: [RRG] Long term clean-slate only for the RRG?

["William Herrin" <bill@herrin.us>]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 3:49 AM,  <HeinerHummel@aol.com> wrote:
> In einer eMail vom 02.07.2008 23:43:24 Westeuropäische Normalzeit schreibt
> bill@herrin.us:
>
>> Layer-3 addresses presently describe two characteristics of the
>> endpoint: its network location and its identity. In a clean slate
>> environment, it is not obvious to me that path-selection need know
>> anything about the identity part; it need only know about one of the
>> network locations.
>
> Right. I'd call it "learning from the postman".A letter isn't checked at the
> ingress postal office whether it is deliverable or not (whether the receiver
> has or has not moved to some other place). Instead it is forwarded to the
> egress postal office without such checking. No attempt is made neither as to
> inform, world-wide, any postal office when someone moves to another
> place. Every year many new residential areas are going to be developed, but
> no postman has ever complained about an (increasing) scalability problem.

Heiner,

I'm not sure that speaks to the question. Let me borrow your analogy:

Line 1: William Herrin
Line 2: 3005 Crane Drive
Line 3: Falls Church, VA 22042
Line 4: United States

Your point is that a post office in Dublin need not know about 3005
Crane Drive. It need only get the mail to the US. The first post
office in the US need not know about Crane Drive either; it need only
get the mail to the post office for 22042. The post office for 22042
does, however, need to know how to get to 3005 Crane Drive.

While that's undoubtedly true, all of lines 2 through 4 are used for
path selection at various stages of the letter's trip. As Noel said,
they are inherently inseparable from the path selection process.. I
could not, for example, tell the post office in Dublin to deliver a
letter to "3005 Crane Drive, United States" or "Falls Church VA,
United States."  It wouldn't reach me.


-MY- point was that Line 1 need not be there at all. It is an
identifier which serves no role in the routing. If you get line 1
wrong or leave it off entirely your letter will still get to me.

Line 1 is valuable for other purposes. I generally round-file letters
addressed to "Current Resident" and I wouldn't want to accidentally
open someone else's mail. However, there is no inherent reason that
"William Herrin" must be a part of the address. It would be just as
functional if I found it on a second envelope enclosed in the first.

This is important, because as it turns out, letters address to:

Line 1: William Herrin
Line 2: 6857 Lafayette Park Drive
Line 3: Annandale, VA 22003
Line 4: United States

will ALSO get to me, albeit a little more slowly. The person with my
identity is reachable at multiple locations each of which can be
described in a manner close enough to a hierarchy to be efficient.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004

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