Subject: Re: heterogeneity

From: [email-masked] (Steve Jackowski)
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 95 09:24:20 PST

Scott,

I find myself questioning the argument that lack of availability of
a particular service level will reduce the viability of the model.  I'd
like to think that if a user asks for Guaranteed, he wants Guaranteed. 
To respond with possible alternatives rather than denying the request
seems like it is going to add unnecessary setup time and traffic, 
particularly if the user did mean he needed the specified level of 
service.  As a simple alternative, you might have the user specify
a 'desired' level of service (say Guaranteed), but also specify what
he would accept if that were not available (e.g. ASAP), or nothing
if he really knew what he needed.  

Putting that aside though, I had a question on your proposal.  If 
a particular router makes a replacement, do all subsequent routers
attempt to provide the replacement service level or do they still
try to meet the original request?  I believe that this has some
implications in trying to meet the original requests, particularly if
the non-complying router should eventually be bypassed.

Steve