The IP Over NBMA (ION) Archive

[David Horton <horton@citr.com.au>]

We perceive a problem in the routing of a registration packet based on the
NHS Destination Protocol address in the registration packet as inserted by
the NHC.

Our problem is "what do we do if the NHC gets it wrong?".

    The specification doesn't say what to do. Options:
    (a) accept the NHC's decision and send it to the selected NHS.
       - Which may throw it away, perhaps "can't serve" or "authentication
        failure" error.
       - Which may not receive it because it is down (and that may be 
         why the routing of resolution packets would be to a different NHS.
       - Which may forward it to an NHS that will accept the registration.
         (But what about the reply, responder address etc)
    (b) ignore the NHC's choice, and route based on the NHC's protocol
        address, following the same rules as would be followed for
        a resolution request.
    (c) throw the request away at the NHS that realizes that the
        NHC's request and configured NHS disagree.

There needs to be a clear statement of the processing that is required
in the case of disagreement. An ambiguous spec is not useful.

So, what we would like to see in the specification is simply  specify the
NHS's correct behavior which we believe is (b).  
If so, we propose, simply, to delete the field. If there is a reason to do
double check with destination IP address in registration request or any
other reason to keep it, then, the specification needs to state how to use it.

--
Hiroshi Suzuki:
Network Research Lab., C&C  Research Labs.
NEC Corp. (tel: +81-44-856-2123), (fax: +81-44-856-2230 )
--
 David Horton
 Centre for Information Technology Research
 Level 2 South Tower, 339 Coronation Drive, Milton, Australia 4064
 Email: d.horton@citr.uq.oz.au     Phone +61 7 32592222   Fax +61 7 32592259