Subject: Re: [rrg] Next revision

From: [email-masked] (Noel Chiappa)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:49:31 -0500 (EST)

> From: Tony Li <[email-masked]>

    > and added a few.

Some suggested improvements on a couple of them:

EID - Endpoint IDentifer: Loosely, an identifier for a host which is not
	dependent on its location; the precise definition varies depending on
	the proposal.
	Considered along two orthogonal axes (what class of objects is being
	named, and what the characteristics of the name are), for many
	proposals it names a 'stack' (loosely, an end-to-end entity), with an
	identifier which is not location-dependent.

RLOC - Routing LOCator: Loosely, a network address, but not one that identifies
	a host; the precise definition varies depending on the proposal.
	Considered along two orthogonal axes (what class of objects is being
	named, and what the characteristics of the name are), for many
	proposals it names a network interface, with an 'address' which is
	location-dependent.

Yes, I know in some ways there are aspects of these that are problematic. I
have tried to do two things:

- i) give people some vague sense of what most people meant by these terms -
while warning them, as you do, that the details will differ from proposal to
proposal; and

- ii) get people used to thinking about these things along the two orthogonal
axes (what is being named, and what the characteristics of the names are)
which are important to use when thinking about names.

If you think the second sentences in each are too problematic, feel free to
drop them, but I would suggest keeping the extended first sentence, to give
naive readers _some_ sort of vague idea of what an EID and RLOC are, beyond
just saying "the precise definition varies depending on the proposal".

And two more:

PA - Provider Assigned: Addresses which cannot be 'taken with you' when a
	site moves to a different location on the network connectivity
	structure; usually assigned by a service provider (hence the name).

PI - Provider Independent: Addresses which 'belong to' a site, and which stay
	with the site when it moves to a different location on the network
	connectivity structure; independent of any service provider (hence the
	name).

This gets to the _technical_ attributes of PI and PA, which are what is most
important to us, rather than the _policy_ aspects.

	Noel

---

From: Tony Li <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:29:31 -0800

Hi Noel,

> Some suggested improvements on a couple of them:

Thanks much.
 
> Yes, I know in some ways there are aspects of these that are problematic.

Agreed.  In fact, in our two previous attempts to get some kind of consensus
on terminology, we foundered right here.  This is exactly why I'm just
trying to expand abbreviations.

Of course, if we were to instantly and miraculously get consensus on
definitions, I'd be happy to incorporate them.

> just saying "the precise definition varies depending on the proposal".

I'm inclined to do this, are other folks ok with this?

> important to us, rather than the _policy_ aspects.

The ARIN lawyers will freak over 'belong to'.

Tony