Subject: Re: [rrg] Next topic: properties of identifiers

From: Toni Stoev <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:16:32 +0300

Nice chatting on the list.

So what are identifiers? Do they have any properties, like hierarchical structure, for example?
And by the way, from a routing point of view, do identifiers identify nodes, or interfaces, or maybe links sometime in the future?
Session identification is important, but is it what we are decoupling from IP addresses? Or is interface/host/node identification?

Toni

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From: Scott Brim <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:15:35 -0400

Toni Stoev allegedly wrote on 07/19/2009 3:16 AM:
> So what are identifiers? 

http://trac.tools.ietf.org/group/irtf/trac/wiki/RRGTerminology

> Do they have any properties, like hierarchical structure, for example?

Hierarchy is often discussed in fora for the specific identifiers under
question.  From the point of view of Routing, the question doesn't matter.

> And by the way, from a routing point of view, do identifiers identify
> nodes, or interfaces, or maybe links sometime in the future?

All.

> Session identification is important, but is it what we are decoupling
> from IP addresses? Or is interface/host/node identification?

The main problem is "addresses", which are used in both
routing/forwarding and identification functions.  We needed to get
identification functions to stop using information that is
topology-dependent (at least at some level).