Subject: RE: [Ipoverib] Is InfiniBand a Layer 2 or Layer 3 Protocol ?

From: "Teixeira, Tom" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 17:40:53 -0500

For this purpose, think of InfiniBand addresses as being like Ethernet MAC
addresses: the manufacturers of InfiniBand channel adapters assign these in
much the same way (a manufacturer ID field along with manufacturer assigned
bits).

You (the network operator) are responsible for getting routable IPv4
addresses.

Part of the Ipoverib specification is how to implement something like ARP to
find the InfiniBand address corresponding to an IPv4 address (or
equivalently for IPv6). And even though InfiniBand addresses are IPv6-like,
you can't calculate one from the other without using something like ARP:
consider what happens today with multiple IPv4 addresses bound to a single
Ethernet address.

Tom Teixeira

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Fleming [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 5:40 PM
To: H.K. Jerry Chu
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [Ipoverib] Is InfiniBand a Layer 2 or Layer 3 Protocol ?

OK, given InfiniBand is going to be used to route IPv4 around.

How does one obtain routable InfiniBand address blocks ?

_______________________________________________
IPoverIB mailing list
[email-masked]
http://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipoverib

---

From: "Jim Fleming" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 17:30:17 -0600

Given your comments, it does not sound like InfiniBand packets
(with IPv4 inside) will be routable on the Internet. That would seem
to do a disservice to InfiniBand. Since InfiniBand has all of the major
Layers covered, it would seem more appropriate to define how the
two complete stacks (IPv4 and InfiniBand) either co-exist or
inter-operate. It sounds like InfiniBand really should become IPvB
and then gateways can be defined. Burying IPvB below IPv4 will
tend to push InfiniBand into the realm of non-interesting protocols,
which may be the goal at play here.

Jim Fleming
http://www.IPv8.info
IPv16....One Better !!