Subject: Re: IETF 51 ZEROCONF Minutes

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 20:25:06 -0700

>my point relative to the "how to get an IP address"
>document is merely that a reader has a hard time seeing how the
>address selection protocol will be used if he doesn't know that
>a service discovery or name-to-address lookup protocol is also
>intended to be part of the picture.

I believe that anyone wanting to implement link-local addresses, and 
reading this document to learn how, will already have an idea of why they 
are doing it and how they intend to use them.

I would rather not try to mandate how link-local addresses should be used.

If people want to use link-local addresses by having an LCD panel on the 
front panel of the device that displays its IP address, then I may think 
that's foolish, but I don't see any reason to tell people they shouldn't 
do that.

If people want to use link-local addresses using some ad-hoc broadcast 
protocol of their own invention to discover other peers on the network, I 
don't see any reason to tell people they shouldn't do that.

If you have specific wording that you'd like to see in the draft, can you 
tell us? I don't know exactly what you want to see, but I can tell you 
are not happy with it the way it is now.

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
 * Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Computer
 * Chairman, IETF ZEROCONF
 * www.stuartcheshire.org

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From: Erik Guttman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 09:30:09 +0200 (MET DST)

Stuart,

I appreciate where you are coming from, but I respectfully disagree.

> I would rather not try to mandate how link-local addresses should be used.

The IETF doesn't mandate how protocols are used.  We do, however, aim to
produce standards which can reasonably be used, and that is Keith's 
point.

> don't see any reason to tell people they shouldn't do that.

There is a very good reason to tell them they shouldn't do that:
There is an IETF standard protocol for service discovery on IP 
networks which scales up on a subnet well, and beyond, is 
interoperable, and has understood administrable properties.

It *is* our business to tell people what they should or should not do - 
that's what applicability statements, host requirements specifications 
and BCPs are all about.

Erik

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From: Keith Moore <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 13:37:51 -0400

It's not just the implementors of link-local addresses that need to know
these things; it's also the writers of applications that will be affected.

> tell us?

I'll try to come up with specific wording for all of these things; it's
just taking me a few days to find the time.  And yesterday was a complete
loss, I'm afraid.

Keith