Subject: [rbridge] PS issue #1

From: spencer at mcsr-labs.org (Spencer Dawkins)
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 13:04:20 -0600

Strongly agree that we need an answer to

#1 which version of ethernet is the baseline?
   STP, RSTP, VLAN, provider bridges, wireless,
   shortest path bridging, etc.
   (this will help us determine what terminology to use)

and suggest that the answer is "at least RSTP/IEEE 802.1D-2004" (to avoid 
spending a lot of energy comparing Rbridge to RSTP late in the game, when 
someone notices that comparing to traditional STP isn't useful).

I am not aware of any text describing shortest path bridging in IEEE 802.1, 
much less an approved specification. There are no documents listed at 
http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/802.1aq.html. The closest I can come to a 
reference is for a tutorial given by Norm Finn this past summer (at 
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/802_tutorials/july05/nfinn-shortest-path-bridging.pdf) 
(and, by the way, Mick Seaman's tutorial from the same session, at 
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/802_tutorials/july05/tutorial-seaman-bridging-technology-0507-01.pdf, 
is also helpful background). So I don't think we can use "shortest path 
bridging" as a baseline now.

I don't see that wireless (IEEE 802.11/16/etc) is going to have an effect on 
bridging behavior (these are PHY/MAC specifications, right?) - except that 
an Rbridge could announce that it now knows a new MAC address based on 
wireless registration, instead of waiting for traffic and learning from 
source addresses.

I don't see that provider/provider backbone bridges, etc. 
(http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/802.1ad.html, 
http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/802.1ah.html) are immediately relevant, 
except that if Rbridges "snoop" other protocols, they need to be able to 
decapsulate down to the protocols they are snooping.

If I misunderstood, please correct me, of course :-)

Spencer

---

From: gibanez at it.uc3m.es (Guillermo Ibáñez)
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:02:04 +0100

This document details  more on Shortest Path Bridging than documents 
mentioned.
http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/docs2005/new-seaman-shortest-path-0305-02.pdf
Regards
Guillermo

Spencer Dawkins wrote:

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-- 
Guillermo Ib??ez
Departamento de Ingenier?a Telem?tica
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
1.1.B.11 Colmenarejo 91-6241393
4.1.F.13 Legan?s 91-6248794