Re: [RAM] revised draft proposed definitions

[Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>]

On 2007-06-11 22:05, Tony Li wrote:
...
> That still fails the test of describing what things are.  What we want 
> is to take a constructive approach:
>
> An identifier is an element of a namespace.  There is a 1:1 mapping 
> between the namespace and the entities being enumerated.
>
>
> > > Locator:    An object that is used only for forwarding packets
> > >         or determining location, never for identification.
> >
> > Same comment only in reverse ;-)  "A locator denotes presence at a 
> > specific point in the network.  When one's location within a network 
> > changes, one locator changes".
>
>
> Ok, but a locator does NOT denote reachability.  Thus, a locator is a 
> string of bits that indicates a topological location.

It seems relevant to paste in the definitions I use in
draft-carpenter-idloc-map-cons. I strongly agree with Tony that
we must relate the notion of ID to a specific namespace. We may
differ slightly on Loc:

   Locator: A binary quantity (not necessarily an IP Address) that can
   be used by a routing or forwarding device to decide where to send a
   packet.

   Identifier: A binary quantity (not necessarily an IP Address) that
   can be used by a Stack "A" to uniquely identify another Stack "B"
   both for bilateral communication and for informing a third Stack "C"
   that it should communicate with Stack "B".  (Note that there is an
   assumption in this definition that a Stack is the entity we require
   to identify; in this era of virtualized servers with failover
   capabilities, and of mobile clients, this seems to be a reasonable
   assumption.)

   Namespace: a set of natural numbers, each of which is referred to as
   a name.  Since it is a set, by definition each name is unique and
   thus the namespace is unambiguous.  Locators and Identifiers must
   belong to specific namespaces.

   Namespace Context: the context within which a given namespace retains
   its uniqueness property.  (For example, the Namespace Context of the
   Namespace created by [RFC1918] is a single Internet site.)

      Brian

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