Re: automating the network: the big picture...

[Rob Austein <sra@hactrn.net>]

At Tue, 11 Feb 2003 12:53:17 -0500, Ralph Droms wrote:
> 
> I was also thinking about a slice through the problem...the minimal set of 
> information a host needs to have in order to communicate on a network:
> 
> IP address
> IP address of a router
> IP address for DNS service
> insertion of the device name and address in  the DNS service
> IP address through which other services can be found
> (more?)

Publishing bindings between the host's current location and some kind
of cryptographically demonstrable identity might belong on this list.
A specific example would be the IPSECKEY model (insertion of public
keys into IN-ADDR.ARPA and IP6.ARPA), but at a conceptual level the
problem is more abstract than that.

How important it is to wedge this function into the "minimal set" is a
matter of opinion.