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

[Ralph Droms <rdroms@cisco.com>]

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?)

The idea here is to have a basis for the assessment of a protocol suite - 
for example, in IPv6, we don't really have a good story for some of the 
items in this list, yet.

Another slice at the problem is the infrastructure that must be provided by 
a network to support host configuration.  I'm trying to have a framework in 
which to discuss the effects of new mechanisms that may simplify the job of 
the host at the expense of causing more work for the network infrastructure 
or of limiting the scale of the network infrastructure.

- Ralph