iSCSI: Session Partial Resolution Clarifications

[Black_David@emc.com]

A few clarifications based on the last day's worth of email.

- The "flow control" issue is definitely still
open.  The sliding window mechanism is one way of
addressing this, but I'd venture that it may not
be the one that would get chosen if this were the
only goal.  So the "flow control" issue is definitely
open, and if that results in putting back the
reference numbers and sliding windows, so be it ...
but not without a serious consideration of other
design alternatives such as capacity advertisement
on login and credit-based mechanisms.  Keep in
mind that this is iSCSI-level flow control; the
WG does not have a license to tinker with TCP's
flow and congestion control.

- The requirement for OPTIONAL support of multiple
connection sessions has not gone away; the intent is
to address it in a separate document in order to
make progress on the main document.  I'm assuming
(and should have stated, sorry), that the main iSCSI
document will continue to contain a negotiation
mechanism sufficient to set up any of the connection
models that have been proposed.  My understanding is
that contains sufficient "hooks" as that term has
been used by Matt Wakeley and Michael Krause, but
alternative views (e.g., we need to set aside n bytes
of Reserved fields for future use in the headers now)
are welcome.

- Those who want to continue to debate multiple connection
sessions on the list need to explain what will be
different that will avoid spending another 6 weeks and
not getting to consensus.  In the absence of such an
explanation, expect to see active discouragement of such
traffic on the list.

Thanks,
--David

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David L. Black, Senior Technologist
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