Subject: Question on the sender descriptor within a PATH message...

From: "Barnett, Joe" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 16:38:38 -0400

I am wondering if when receiving a PATH message, that the component objects
defined within the sender descriptor should be processed in any order within
the PATH message. By this I mean, seeing that the sender descriptor looks
like so:
       <sender descriptor> ::=  <SENDER_TEMPLATE> <SENDER_TSPEC>
                                         [ <ADSPEC> ]
                                         [ <RECORD_ROUTE> ]
and the path message looks as so:
      <Path Message> ::=       <Common Header> [ <INTEGRITY> ]
                               <SESSION> <RSVP_HOP>
                               <TIME_VALUES>
                               [ <EXPLICIT_ROUTE> ]
                               <LABEL_REQUEST>
                               [ <SESSION_ATTRIBUTE> ]
                               [ <POLICY_DATA> ... ]
                               <sender descriptor>
Now, for example, lets say that the order in which I received the PATH
message objects looked like this:
      <path msg stream> ::=      <Common Header>
                                 <SESSION>
                               <SENDER_TSPEC>
                               <RSVP_HOP>
                               <TIME_VALUES>
                               <RECORD_ROUTE>
                               <LABEL_REQUEST>
                              <SENDER_TEMPLATE>
notice that all mandatory objects are present, however the sender
descriptors object components are not contiguous. Is this an acceptable PATH
message formation? I know I should accept objects in any permissible order,
however would this be the case with the sender descriptor's component
objects?

Kind regards,
Joseph Barnett