Subject: Re: [pilc] RE: AD request / L2 Triggers Charter Statement

From: Vernon Schryver <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 09:18:55 -0600 (MDT)

> From: James Carlson <[email-masked]>

> ...
> >  Over the years it seems that the IETF matured
> > to the point of almost completely specifying the IP to Ethernet binding.
>
> No.  It specifies where the bits belong inside the Ethernet frames.
> That's all it can specify. 

Those who have read the relevant IEEE and IETF standards know that
the IETF defines the bits in the INFO field which the IEEE intentionally
does not define.  The IEEE defines the first 14 bytes as well as the
preamble, FCS, trailer, and IFG that the IETF either says nothing
about or picks defined subsets (e.g. th group bit)....well, there are
first 8 bytes of the INFO field in some rare flavors that the ITU
defines and the IETF picks and chooses.

> ...
> >  A whole cottage industry has developed
> > around the black art of device drivers and their intricate details.  I have even
> > written a few myself over the years.  This is definitely an underspecified and
> > under-standardized area of networking art. 
> ...

No, it is in large part because it is such an over-specified and
over-standardized area that there are no really useful standards.
Any programmer who has been paying attention know of relevant
standards--not that paying attention to them is very useful.  For the
last 15 yars, every group of PHBs and marketers that came along wanted
to and made a good start at defining APIs and ABIs.  That they are
all like DLPI and classic committee efforts from people who say that
have lots of real experience, but don't may be relevant.  Like world
peace, it is also not something a standards track RFC could help.
For the IETF to get more involved in that area with more than vague,
Informational suggestions would only contribute to the PHB and marketer
problem in APIs.

Vernon Schryver    [email-masked]

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