Subject: Review: Section 4.3 - Path Attributes

From: "Michael C. Cambria" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 12:59:27 -0400

From a first time reader point of view ...

The top of page 13 says:

"A variable length sequence of path attributes is present in every UPDATE."

Is this really true, given that later, in the second to last paragraph 
of this section (4.3):

"An UPDATE message might advertise only routes to be withdrawn from 
service, in which case it will not include path attributes or Network 
Layer Reachability Information."

This could be confusing to a first time reader.

The path attribute length is present in every UPDATE, the path attribute 
field itself can be left out, both according to the description of the 
minimum length of the UPDATE message and (implied?) in the picture of 
the UPDATE message at the beginning of section 4.3.

MikeC

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From: Yakov Rekhter <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 09:30:09 -0700

Michael,

> the UPDATE message at the beginning of section 4.3.

To correct the confusion I propose to replace:

  A variable length sequence of path attributes is present in every UPDATE.

with:

  A variable length sequence of path attributes is present in
  every UPDATE message, except for an UPDATE message that carries 
  only the withdrawn routes.

Yakov.