Subject: New area for the group?

From: Marie-Jose Montpetit <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 08:54:51 -0400

I guess with the IETF coming the traffic on the list will grow soon. I
would like to submit a few discussion topics that are closely related to
IP performance over links that exhibit special characteristics. 

I have the impression that our focus up to now has been mostly on the
WAN. How about now looking at the Home Networks, the so called HANs
(Home Area Networks)? While I do believe that what the group has done in
the current drafts applies to the home ethernets and even the wireless
LANs (802.11 and Bluetooth) I think we may want to put our brains
together to make sure it does. I also think that the use of power lines
provided new challenges. While the current implementations are pretty
low bit rate the next generation (read this fall) is moving to the
megabits per second. The way I understand them the link layer of these
networks is the use of error protection mechanisms (FEC and what I would
classify as "fade protection" potentially variable rates) to ensure some
performance in spite of air conditioners or hair dryers and in general a
pretty noisy environment. These mechanisms will have impacts on TCP as
we well know. Do we want to add something in the LINK draft to cover
those or do we believe we have enough right now? There is probably other
issues in the HAN that may need our attention but may also be covered by
other groups.

Anyway my views.

Happy 4th of July!

Marie-Jose

Marie-Jose Montpetit
Nokia Venture Organization
[email-masked]/[email-masked]