RE: multiple connections

[Black_David@emc.com]

> Thanks for your prompt answer.  However I will try to summarize the views
as I heard them
> only to keep tab on where we stand at the point the discussion was
interrupted and state
> the (rather long) line of thought that makes us all feel that the design
should include
> multiple connections from the outset. We can then stop discussing it for a
while.

If such a message is posted it will set off more discussion ... this
community seems
reluctant to grant anyone the proverbial "last word" in that sort of
fashion.  Please consider
whether posting such a message is likely to produce progress towards
consensus.

> I feel also that the community had no chance to see a draft including an
asymmetric
> multiple connection model and it might be a worthwhile exercise to present
> one as an (optional text) with the next draft.

Please put the (optional text) into a separate draft - as long as the
Asymmetric vs.
Symmetric issue is open, neither should be described in the main draft, lest
people not familiar with the day to day happenings on this list draw the
wrong
conclusions.  Preparing such a draft with all the details worked out would
indeed
be useful, as would corresponding drafts on the other possible models.

> I would like also - only to be fair - to point out -
> as others have done before - that by removing the command counters and the
sliding
> window you have, for all practical purposes, closed the door to the
> symmetric multiple connection version.

Subsequent to saying that the command numbers should be removed, I got a
bunch
of complaints that the numbers were also useful for flow control, even for
single
connection sessions and hence reopened the flow control discussion.  If
consensus
is that flow control really needs the command numbers, putting them back in
is fine.
It would also be reasonable to advocate that the fields that contained the
command
numbers be Reserved in the single connection case.  On the list, I see a set
of people
who seem to be primarily interested in single connection sessions, and hence
for
whom simplicity of the protocol in the single connection case is an
important
consideration.

--David

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David L. Black, Senior Technologist
EMC Corporation, 42 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
+1 (508) 435-1000 x75140     FAX: +1 (508) 497-8500
black_david@emc.com       Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
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