Re: Evaluation: draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-query - Multi Protocol Label Switching Label Distribution Protocol Query Message Description to Proposed Standard

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>]

In message <200306080449.AAA01441@ietf.org>, IESG Secretary writes:
>
>Last Call to expire on: 2003-3-25
>
>	Please return the full line with your position.
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>                    Yes    No-Objection  Discuss *  Abstain  
>
>
>Steve Bellovin      [   ]     [   ]       [ X ]      [   ] 

This text from Section 7 doesn't make sense to me:

   If the
   Reply message is full, TCP will take care of it by segmenting and
   re-assembling the message.

What does it mean for a Reply message to be full?  The obvious answer 
is that the reply is longer than the 2^16 bytes permitted by the 
Message Length field (btw, the definition of it should state explicitly 
whether the length field and the preceeding two bytes are counted in 
the length.  I suspect not, but it should be stated more clearly.).
But if the message is too long for that, TCP can't possibly help.  If 
it's not a 2^16 bytes issue, what does the sentence mean?

Why is a 1-byte hop count encoded as a TLV?  (Do we really need 2^15 
possible query types?  Perhaps the hop count should go there.)

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but what is the ultimate 
destination of Query messages?  Is it in the Query TLV?  But the draft 
suggests that a new label is swapped in at each hop.  




		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me)
		http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)