From: Ethan Katz-Bassett (ethan@cs.washington.edu)
Date: Sun Oct 03 2004 - 22:43:26 PDT
This paper presents the early goals behind the creation of the Internet
protocol suite and explains how these goals shaped the protocols. It does a
good job relating the goals to aspects of the design. I was particularly
interested in the explanations of how the relative priority of the different
goals affected the protocols.
The paper barely addresses alternatives that were considered; I would like
to know which design decisions were strongly contested. It does not explore
the protocols that might have resulted from different goal prioritization.
The protocols still seem to appropriately address the most important
original goals: new types of networks and technologies are connected to the
Internet without reengineering of the protocols, the Internet generally
functions well in the face of failure, and new types of services are
delivered without changes to the underlying protocols. However, the
protocols do not lend themselves to lower priority goals such as resource
accounting, and I would have liked more about alternatives that address
these goals.
The paper remains relevant today by explaining original motivations behind
protocols that are used more now than ever. A correct understanding of
these motivations provides a context from which to evaluate the protocols.
The paper's emphasis on the importance of the ordering of the goals suggests
the value of reevaluating the protocols based on the ordered priorities of
current stakeholders.
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