Subject: dumb question

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 22:01:48 -0400 (EDT)

The switch I am working with has a few characteristics which don't seem
to fit the GSMP model. Among other divergences, the cell monitoring
functions are limited to one port at a time: the switch controller
must tell the switch which port to monitor. There are a few other
non-GSMP-model cases in which the switch controller must push parameters
into the switch in a way not envisioned by the draft.

I see third possibilities. First, I could define a non-standard ("vendor-
specific") command that does exactly what I need, with a new mtype. Second,
use the Port Management message (mtype 32) and define a new function bit
by grabbing one of the reserved bits (say b15). Third, I could use a side-
band mechanism outside of GSMP.

I can see disadvantages to all three solutions, but ultimately I need
the functionality, and as best I can see, GSMPv3 doesn't provide an
escape mechanism. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Does anyone have better ideas, or which use a philosophically preferred
mechanism for this sort of thing?

The switch, an IDT evaluation card, uses the IDT 77400 Datapath memory,
the 77500 Datapath memory controller, and the 77550 "switch manager".

Thanks for any suggestions.

				Best regards,

				Jim Snyder
				[email-masked]

				AT&T Labs - Research
				Shannon Laboratory
				180 Park Ave.
				Florham Park, NJ 07932
					Room A059
				973-360-8214 (voice)
				973-360-8455 (fax)

---

From: "Kenneth Sundell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 16:09:33 +0200

Jim,
gsmpv3 allows vendor specific data to be appended at the end of a gsmp message.
message types 250-255 are reserved for vendor specific messages. the iana
consideration section will be more clear in the next version.

regards,
ken

--
Kenneth Sundell
Routing Architecture Lab, Nortel Networks Sweden
phone: +46 8 5088-3538, mobile +46 70 665-7838