Subject: Multicast address allocation BOF

From: Dave Thaler <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 17:29:52 -0500 (EST)

Since discussion on multicast address allocation has spanned three 
different working groups, I'm announcing this on all three lists...

We've received approval for a BOF on multicast address allocation in DC
so that discussion can be concentrated in one forum instead of three.

Here's the proposed description:

Multicast-Address Allocation (MALLOC) WG
========================================

Multicast address allocation is an essential part of using IP
multicast.  Multicast addresses are an even more limited resource than
unicast addresses, and must be allocated dynamically if they are to
satisfy expected demand.  To this end, the MALLOC WG is initially
proposing to define three protocols which work together to form a
global dynamic multicast address allocation mechanism.  This
architecture is a strawman archictecture, and may be significantly
revised over time.  The strawman protocols will be:

- a local protocol to obtain one or more multicast addresses from a
local address allocation server.

- a "domain" wide Address Allocation Protocol (AAP) that local
servers can use to claim a multicast address for a period of time.
This protocol is likely to be similar to the MMUSIC WG's Session
Announcement Protocol.

- an inter-domain Multicast Address Set Claim (MASC) protocol to
provide aggregatable multicast address sets (similar to a prefix for
unicast addresses) that AAP can then allocate individual multicast
addresses out of.

MASC is intended to work with the IDMR WG's Border Gateway Multicast
Protocol to provide a scalable inter-domain multicast routing
solution.

An important part of these protocols is that they do not necessarily
guarantee that a unique multicast address is allocated.  They must,
however, at least provide a good statistical likelihood that the 
address is unique within the scope it is allocated for.

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We expect that the agenda will look something like the following:

Agenda for the Dec 1997 IETF Meeting
====================================

 - Agenda Bashing

 - Introduction/Charter discussion

 - Discussion of tri-level architecture (see above) and the goal of
   high probability of uniqueness rather than guarantees.

 - Static multicast address allocation issues (e.g., SVRLOC)

 - MASC proposal for the Inter-domain level

 - AAP proposal for the Address-Allocator-to-Border Router level

 - MDHCP proposal for the Host-to-Address-Allocator level

 - Other proposals?

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Please send agenda requests/comments to Mark Handley ([email-masked]) and 
myself.

Thanks,
-Dave