Subject: Re: Number of DP bits?

From: [email-masked] (Konstantinos Dovrolis)
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 14:20:32 -0600

> 
> It would be useful if someone can provide a tradeoff study between 
> one and multiple DPs backed with *solid* quantitative results
> (and convincing arguments) rather than arguing qualitatively 
> (or even based on almost nothing).
> 
> indra
>

Extending the above suggestion, for what kind of "consensus process"
are we talking about? The service model for the next-generation
Internet and the mechanisms to support it cannot, and in my opinion
SHOULD NOT be based on just some qualitative arguments discussed
at a mailing list. Differentiated services is a very new area that
has not been studied enough yet. I know only of 3-4 papers (most
of them still unpublished) that actually investigate the issue
quantitatively.

Remember that before we reach the point where the Guaranteed service model
and mechanisms were clearly specified, there were at least 4-5 years of 
intense research activity on the problem. The same is true for the Controlled
Load service and for RSVP.

I am not arguing that the ongoing discussions at the mailing list are
"bad". I am just saying that a few numbers and some experiments
on the issue would be much more useful.

Constantinos

---

From: Jon Crowcroft <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1997 15:12:27 +0000

>at a mailing list. 

the norm in the internet standards world is"rough consensus"
AND "working code"....

 >of them still unpublished) that actually investigate the issue

there are some vey early research net experiments just starting....but
you're right, its a tad too soon to say a lot...

 >on the issue would be much more useful.
on the issue of "how many bits?" we can easily seperate out IPv4 and
IPv6 - we don;t have a lot of bits to play with and they are to some
extent already constrained in IPv4.....so i think one could have a 2
stage plan....1 bit, then 2 bits

thas my 3 bits :-)

 jon