Subject: [forces] The future of the ForCES WG

From: "Adrian Farrel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2012 18:33:00 +0100

Hi WG,

The chairs and I have been discussing the future of the WG for about a year. The
working group work load has been pretty light, and between meetings the mailing
list has been almost entirely dormant.

In Paris we were all a bit surprised by the turn-out at the ForCES meeting and
the sudden interest in comparing ForCES with OpenFlow. So we decided to let
things run until Vancouver to see what happened. 

Between Paris and Vancouver there was pretty much silence, and so the chairs and
I agreed that we would make sure everyone knew that they could post I-Ds and
discuss "fringe" ForCES topics on the list. Jamal sent mail "opening those
gates" on August 12. But the list was silent.

So we got to discussing what would happen next.

My preferred option is to declare success (we have the core ForCES RFCs) and
close the WG. We would complete the existing WG I-Ds as AD sponsored, and keep
the mailing list open for discussion of ForCES issues.

But Jamal (good cop to my bad cop) persuaded me to let the WG run a bit more and
to allow a meeting in Atlanta. And, true to form, you guys have managed to push
out some new drafts just before the deadline.

So this is what we'll do...

Please think of the meeting in Atlanta as a sort of "ForCES continuation
mini-BoF"
What work could the working group move on to (including existing I-Ds)? And what
is the commitment within the WG to push this work forward?

I must explain that looking at the progress over the last 12 months, there
doesn't seem to be enough energy to complete the current WG drafts, and that
(lack of) progress colors how I look at the WG. So please do your best to prove
Jamal right.

Thanks,
Adrian

---

From: "Wang,Weiming" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:47:47 +0800

I wonder if it would have been a more reasonable time point closing the WG about  two to three years ago, rather than at current point. 

Currently, the value of ForCES is being rediscovered along with the increasing demands and activities towards a new dynamic and flexible enough network system and associated equipments. In the process, more work of the WG is also found necessary. The work mainly lies  in the L2 processing and related entities in the ForCES model. Currently there are several drafts addressing the issues. Moreover, an LFB library document specifically  for L2 processing is also required, which is what we are doing and hope to submit a draft soon. I just think these works are essencial then we "declare success of the ForCES WG and shut it down". The process to finish the work may not last long, say half to one year at most. So, comared with 10 years the WG lasted, I believe such prolonged a little time is really valuable and worthy of it. 

thanks,
Weiming

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adrian Farrel" <[email-masked]>

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