Subject: Re: [issue9]Fix LFB definition

From: "Putzolu, David" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:45:06 -0800

The new definition looks very good.  The only additional change I would
suggest is changing the sentence:
"or may be purely a control entity that is operated on  by the CE" 
to 
"or may be purely a FE control or configuration entity that is operated
on by the CE"

Regards,
David

-----Original Message-----
From: Forwarding and Control Element Separation
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Wang,Weiming
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 11:09 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [FORCES] [issue9]Fix LFB definition

David,

I suppose the following change on thie LFB definitions. Pls comment it.

Change:
   LFB (Logical Function Block) Class (or Type) -- the basic building
   blocks that are operated on by the Forces protocol.  The LFB is a
   well defined, logically separable functional block that resides in
   the FE and is controlled by the CE via ForCES protocol.  The LFB may
   reside at the FE's datapath and process packets or may be purely a
   control entity that is operated on by the CE.

   LFB (Logical Function Block) Instance -- As a packet flows through an
   FE along a datapath, it flows through one or multiple LFB instances,
   with each implementing an instance of a certain LFB type.  There may
   be multiple instances of the same LFB in an FE's datapath.  Note that
   we often refer to LFBs without distinguishing between LFB type and
   LFB instance when we believe the implied reference is obvious for the
   given context.

To:
   LFB (Logical Function Block)  -- the basic building block that is
operated on
by the Forces protocol.  The LFB is a  well defined, logically separable
functional block that resides in the FE and is controlled by the CE via
ForCES
protocol.  The LFB may reside at the FE's datapath and process packets
or may be
purely a control entity that is operated on by the CE.  Note that the
LFB is a
functionally accurate abstraction of the FE's processing capabilities,
but not a
hardware-accurate representation of the FE implementation.

  LFB Class(or Type) and LFB Instance -- LFBs are categorized by LFB
Classes(or
Types).  An LFB Instance repsesents an LFB Class (or Type) existence.
There may
be multiple instances of the same LFB Class (or Type) in an FE.  An LFB
Class is
represented  by an LFB Class ID, and an LFB Instance is represented by
an LFB
Instance ID.  As a result, an LFB Class ID associated with an LFB
Instance ID
uniquely specify an LFB existence.

Thanks,
Weiming

[email-masked]
2005-11-14.20:21:04

The current definition of LFB instance implies incorrectly that all LFB
instances are in the data path.  If anything, consider combining LFB
Type and
instance in a single definition because they are so closely related. The
LFB
definitions should also clearly call out that LFBs are a functionally
accurate
abstraction of the FE's packet processing capabilities, but not a
hardware-
accurate representation of the FE implementation.