Subject: RE: Vendor Specific Message Type

From: "Phaneuf, Brian" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 11:14:31 -0500

If we do not know the vendor or the message, then we react
according to the MBit in the AVP sent by the peer.
Close the connection if mandatory, ignore if it is optional.

-----Original Message-----
From: W. Mark Townsley [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 6:20 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Vendor Specific Message Type 

I would like to propose additional text to indicate that the Message
Type AVP may be used to indicate a Vendor Specific message. I believe
this was the original intent, but the current text does not accurately
reflect this.

Early on, there was discussion of reserving zero for each vendor
specific AVP number space for use as a numeric identifier for Vendor
Type. The prevailing argument against this was that such a definitive
value would foster implementations to make operational decisions based
upon it, increasing complexity and reducing overall interoperabilty. 

Just to be clear, the idea is that if I want to create my own vendor
specific message, I simply include my SMI Enterprise Code value in the
Vendor ID field of the Message Type AVP. Then I can construct whatever
vendor specific AVPs (if any) I wish following it.

My questions are:

(1) Are there any implementations that currently define a vendor
specific AVP of zero?
(2) Would any of you break if you received a control message with a
nonzero Vendor ID in the Message Type AVP? 

Thanks,
 
- Mark