Subject: [Dime] DOIC and terminology

From: Jouni Korhonen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:51:12 +0200

Folks,

In the terminology there is an open issue:

          [OpenIssue: We used the concept of a server farm and SFE for
          internal discussions. Do we still need those concepts to explain the
          mechanism? It doesn't seem like we use them much.]

The terms server farm and SFE are mainly used within the terminology
section itself. If we were to remove e.g. SFE only, then the following are
also in the list for removal:

   Load Management:

      This functionality ensures that the consolidated load state for
      the server farm is collected, and processed.  The exact algorithm
      for computing the load at the SFE is implementation specific but
      enough semantic of the conveyed load information needs to be
      specified so that deterministic behavior can be ensured.

   Overload Management:

      The SFE is the entity that understands the consolidated overload
      state for the server farm.  Just as it is outside the scope of
      this document to specify how a Diameter server calculates its
      overload state, it is also outside the scope of this document to
      specify how an SFE calculates the overload state for the set of
      servers.  This document describes how the SFE communicates
      Overload information to Diameter Clients.

   Server Farm Identity Management:

      Server Farm Identity Management (SFIM) is a mechanism that can be
      used by the SFE to present a single Diameter identity that can be
      used by clients to send Diameter requests to the server farm.
      This requires that the SFE modifies Origin-Host information in
      answers coming from servers in the server farm.  An agent that
      performs SFIM appears as a server from the client's perspective.

There are also other impacts but those can be reworded with a minor effort.

Opinions?