Subject: [alto] Incremental update

From: "Y. Richard Yang" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:05:23 -0400

Dear all,

I am evaluating the base protocol (
http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-alto-protocol-20.txt) from the
perspective of incremental updates, following the discussions in:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-schwan-alto-incr-updates-02

Here is what I read:

- The base protocol does not include the "update-interval". This is an
interesting concept, and BitTorrent Tracker protocol includes such as
field. I suppose that we could add this field as an option field.

- vtag: the base protocol requires that the server MUST specify the vtag of
the network map (Sec. 11.2.1.6 of alto-protocol-20). But for the Cost Map:
the base protocol requires only the vtag of the dependent network map; it
does not require that a vtag for the cost map MUST be specified. In other
words, an incremental update service must specify this requirement.

- JSON Patch and JSON pointer: It appears that they have changed and became
RFCs: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6901 and
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902

I am wondering if the authors of the incremental update draft have revised
the document, considering the updated base protocol and the updated JSON
patch and pointer docs.

It will be great if ALTO provides an incremental update/subscription
mechanism soon.

Thanks!

Richard