Subject: Notify Timestamp

From: "Rosen, Brian" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 18:42:41 -0500

We observe the following issue:

Notify Timestamp is marked as optional in the ABNF.  There is no text
in ObservedEvents that mandates it.  However, if you have an unordered
transport, such as UDP, you need the timestamp to order events,
such as digits not using a digitmap.

Either we make timestamp mandatory for all Notifies, we make it
mandatory for UDP, or we have a caution in the implementor's guide.

I also point out another issue:
If you don't use digitmaps, and ask for each digit as an event,
there is no way the MGC can implement a timer, unless you put a
bound on network delay.  There are VERY FEW real networks that
can have such a bound.  Digitmaps are usefull.

Brian

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From: "Kevin Boyle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 10:33:32 -0500

I vote for a caution.  In a well-defined, tightly-engineered network, the
messages should only rarely be delivered out of order, and should be
minimally delayed.  While our digitmaps were under development, we had
single digit collection working for testing purposes, and it worked just
fine for us, even when we were running tests across our corporate intranet
(which is neither well-defined nor tightly-engineered).

Those who use UDP should already know and anticipate the dangers
associated with the transport when they design their boxes.  If that
involves using timestamps (or some other clever method) to validate
message ordering, then great.  But, I don't think it's really necessary to
mandate timestamps.

Kevin